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| author | nfenwick <nfenwick@pglaf.org> | 2025-03-25 06:21:04 -0700 |
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| committer | nfenwick <nfenwick@pglaf.org> | 2025-03-25 06:21:04 -0700 |
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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/75710-0.txt b/75710-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d9399f3 --- /dev/null +++ b/75710-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,12422 @@ + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75710 *** + + + + BY WAY OF CAPE HORN + + _FOURTH EDITION_ + +[Illustration: Cape Horn bearing northwest, distant fifteen miles] + + + + + BY WAY OF CAPE HORN + + FOUR MONTHS IN A + YANKEE CLIPPER + + BY + + PAUL EVE STEVENSON + + AUTHOR OF “A DEEP-WATER VOYAGE” + + ILLUSTRATED FROM PHOTOGRAPHS TAKEN BY THE AUTHOR + + [Illustration] + + PHILADELPHIA + + J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY + + 1908 + + + + + +Copyright, 1898+ + + BY + + +J. B. Lippincott Company+ + + + + + TO + + MY MOTHER + + + + + PREFACE + + +As in the case of our first “Deep-Water Voyage” to Calcutta, the +present one was undertaken with the sole idea of enjoyment. The +pleasure which such a voyage affords the fortunate few in whom there +is a real affection for the sea is quite indescribable. To such there +is no monotony, for there is always something interesting and amusing +going on aboard ship, if one’s eyes are open; the men themselves +present an inexhaustible field for study and reflection, and it is well +known that a more jovial and witty fraternity does not exist. + +But there is also a sombre, tragic side to a voyage in a Yankee +deep-water ship, and that is the cruel and brutal treatment accorded +that most popular individual just now,--the American sailor; by which +is meant the men who sail before the mast under our flag. The merchant +service has ever been regarded as the navy’s nursery, and a faithful +account by an impartial observer will be found in these pages, showing +the manner in which our seamen are treated,--the brothers, as it were, +of those who won our victories at Manila and Santiago. + + P. E. S. + + +New York+, October 10, 1898. + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + + Cape Horn bearing northwest, distant fifteen miles _Frontispiece_ + + PAGE + The course of the “Hosea Higgins” 13 + + The companion-way 18 + + Plan of cabin 28 + + Forty to the minute 48 + + Mending sails in fine weather 53 + + Overhauling the “Venturer” 84 + + “Blow, my bully boys, blow” 104 + + “Eight bells” 127 + + A fifty-foot Cape Horn gray-beard 212 + + The ablest seaman in the ship 303 + + The four-masted British ship “Loch Torridon” 333 + + Tarring down 358 + + Hauling taut the braces 387 + + +[Illustration: The course of the “Hosea Higgins”] + + + + +BY WAY OF CAPE HORN + + +It would have been reasonable to suppose that, having made one long +voyage in a sailing ship, my wife and I would have been content to +stop ashore for the rest of our lives, or at least to limit the length +of our voyages to the distance which separates the United States and +Europe. For a while, indeed, after our return to America from India, +we were contented enough on land, and were kept busy answering the +innumerable questions of interested relatives and friends concerning +the voyage just ended. But restlessness presently attacked us again; +and it was not hard to perceive by the avidity with which my wife +searched the _Herald’s_ ship-news columns every morning for +tidings of deep-water vessels that no persuasion on my part would be +necessary in the event of our undertaking another voyage. Therefore, +when two years had passed away, we began to discuss the advisability of +once more tempting the elements in another sea-journey to far-distant +lands. Japan loomed up before us in a particularly rosy light as a +destination for this voyage; but there was one great objection to it: +a voyage to Yokohama would have taken us around the Cape of Good Hope +a second time, and it was our cherished desire to double Cape Horn, +and thus overcome the two most celebrated and tempestuous promontories +on the globe. Indeed, as far back as I can remember, I have always +wanted to accomplish the westerly passage around the southernmost +extremity of the earth’s continents. The very name of Cape Horn is +enough to fire the imagination of a true lover of the sea, and fills +the mind with pictures of ships battling with gales of wind and giant +seas and visions of bleak, iron-bound shores wrapped in the gloom +which enshrouds that desolate region. After much discussion, then, we +decided on the voyage from New York to San Francisco. It was January +when we first broached the matter, and, after arguing the pros and cons +of the subject, concluded to try and get away in May, as that would +take us to the Horn in July, the middle of the antarctic winter. At +this our friends stood aghast. “It is quite bad enough,” they said, +“to tempt Providence at all on so foolhardy an excursion, but to +double Cape Horn in midwinter is going beyond the limits of reason.” +But we stood our ground in spite of the hurricane of objections (and +it required some moral courage to do it), and forthwith commenced +systematic preparations for the journey. We were making the voyage to a +great extent for the purpose of experiencing the weather and seas off +Cape Horn, and as the latter would, no doubt, be larger and grander +in winter than in summer, I don’t think that our idea was so very +preposterous after all. + +Naturally, our first thought was of the vessel in which we were to +sail, and we looked forward with much interest to a voyage in an +American ship, having all our lives heard that our ships were run in +a splendid manner, that the discipline on board was perfect, etc.; +and it would also be interesting to compare this vessel with those +of another nation, as our first voyage was made in the British ship +“Mandalore.” Now, it happened that all of our largest deep-watermen +were away from New York, and we were at a loss what to do, for, as a +general rule, the larger the vessel the more comfortable she is in +bad weather. There are many who will, no doubt, take exception to +this, as being by no means true; yet it would be absurd to argue that +the “Germanic,” for instance, is as easy in heavy weather as the +“Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse,” or a twelve-hundred-ton sailing ship as +the “Potosi.” At length, one morning appeared the announcement in the +marine news that the ship “Hosea Higgins,” Abner Scruggs, master, had +arrived from San Francisco. She was not as large as the “Roanoke” by +a thousand tons or more; but she was well known to us by name, and we +went over to Brooklyn one day, where she was discharging a cargo of +wine, canned salmon, and whale-oil, and introduced ourselves to the +captain. Although gruff in the extreme at first, he subsequently thawed +out sufficiently to warrant the belief that he was really quite an +amiable individual, and we parted with his assurance that if the owners +were willing he would take us around to San Francisco, and even went to +the length of offering us his own room, which was very large and well +ventilated. The owners raised no objections to our going, so we paid +the passage-money of six hundred dollars and took possession of the +captain’s room. I might remark parenthetically that this seemed to be a +pretty good round sum to pay as passage-money, in view of the fact that +we paid only three hundred dollars to Calcutta on the first voyage; +however, in the latter case the money went to the captain, while in +the present instance it went to the owners; besides, this passage +would probably be somewhat longer. The captain received no recompense +whatever, unless we should choose to make him a present. + +The ship was advertised to sail on May 1, but there was the usual +delay incident to the departure of a sailing ship taking out a general +cargo, and it was nearly a fortnight after that date before we finally +departed. + +Under any conditions it is interesting to watch the loading of a large +sailing ship, and when you are going to sea in that ship, a certain +degree of interest seems to attach itself to each article, and the +assortment of freight was bewildering. In a couple of hours, one +morning when I was on board, there came down in rapid succession two +large boilers for Spreckles’s sugar refinery in Honolulu, several +hundred cases of starch, ditto kegs of nails, two wagon-loads of +sewing-machines, two hundred bales of oakum, and four very large +whale-boats, about thirty-five feet long, going out to Sitka. Strange +that they can not or do not build good whale-boats on the Pacific +coast; the best boats used by our whalers are all built in New Bedford, +even down to the present time, and sent out to Alaska round the Horn. + +It will be easily perceived how difficult it must be to stow a cargo +of this sort so that in the heaviest of weather it will not shift. +Imagine packing away four clumsy boats in a ship’s hold so that they +will not be crushed by heavier objects, and yet in such a way as to +prevent these very objects from shifting. If the various articles could +be delivered on the pier to suit the stevedores, it would be plain +sailing; but everything must be taken as it comes, and it calls for the +greatest skill from the most experienced men. There is said to be only +a single firm of this sort in New York whose men understand perfectly +the art of stowing the cargo of a deep-water ship. + +For several days we were tortured on the rack of expectation; but after +the most aggravating delays and daily messages from the owners that +the ship “would positively go to sea to-morrow,” we learned one Monday +morning that the ship would be cleared that day and would sail the next +morning, which was + + ++May 11+ + +Oh, the riot attendant upon the departure of a ship on a long voyage! +The distraction and tumult are at some moments terrific, in spite of +everything that has been written about a vessel’s being in perfect +order to a sailor’s eye when leaving port. We have been on two large +ships now when getting under way, and all I have to say on the subject +is, that it is wonderful how much disturbance and disorder can be +gathered into so small a space as a ship’s deck. We were told to be +on board by nine o’clock, as the tide would serve soon afterward, and +we would haul out about ten. At the stipulated hour, then, we went +over the side and found that the crew had just come down. They were +collected together in the waist, and in the centre of the group stood +a hard-looking individual whom I took for the shipping-master. He was +haranguing the men, who seemed to listen intently, though I couldn’t +hear what was said; and when I strolled to the break of the poop to +be nearer to him, he gruffly commanded me to “go way from there, will +you.” Why he did so it is impossible to say, unless he was engaged in +some unlawful transaction. This was, no doubt, the reason, as there is +no attempt made by the United States authorities to enforce the laws +relating to the shipping of seamen. By and by this creature took his +disagreeable countenance over the side, and immediately those who were +not too drunk were turned to at various odd jobs about the decks. Some +of the men, however, were too far gone to even stand upright alone, +so the two mates seized half a dozen of them and drove them forward +and into the forecastle, the door of which was then locked, and the +men were left to themselves to sleep off some of the effects of South +Street grog. Those who come aboard in this condition generally have a +bottle or two each of rum concealed about them, and after a vigorous +search the mate found himself possessed of several quarts of very bad +grog, which he hove into the river. + +Several of our relatives and friends had come down to see us off, and, +seated aft by the wheel-house, they seemed to take deep interest in +the rakish fellows who were to be our companions, as it were, for four +or five months. On the whole, they were a very decent-looking crowd; +but when the second mate sung out, “Come up here a couple of you, +and give us a hand with this tow line,” and all hands came stumbling +up the poop ladders and lumbered aft with that fixed, idiotic stare +of half-intoxicated men trying to show how very sober they are, we +observed that our relatives shuddered as they thought of our being +imprisoned for maybe half a year with this company of ruffians, as +they, no doubt, supposed the men to be. + +A remarkable feature of the departure of our ship was the crowd that +had gathered to see us off. A body of men and boys to the number of +at least two hundred were ranged along the pier, minutely criticising +the ship and the way in which she was sparred, as well as the probable +length of voyage. “It’ll be Cape Horn in July,” said one, “and she’ll +never do it in less than a hundred and fifty.” “Guess you don’t know +the old man, or you wouldn’t say that,” said his neighbor. “If Scruggs +don’t take her out under a hundred and twenty, I’m a farmer.” Here +a movement was perceptible among the crowd; somebody seemed to be +elbowing his way through the midst, and in another moment we recognized +the fierce whiskers of Abner Scruggs himself. With him was one of the +agents, and they both seemed angry about something; but the captain +greeted us very amiably, imparting to us at the same time the unwelcome +news that he must now clear the ship of all who were not going along. +Sad farewells were said, relatives and friends were handed over the +gangway, which was instantly drawn on board, the powerful tow-boat +“C. E. Evarts” started ahead, and we began to move slowly out, stern +first, into the rapid current of the East River. So imperceptibly did +we gather way that it was a minute or so before any one on the pier +saw that we had started; some one in the crowd suddenly perceived it +and shouted “she’s off;” and as our long, slender jib-boom glided out +past the string-piece, we were saluted with a series of hearty cheers, +which lasted until the tugs (for another joined us) had slued the ship +around and headed her for Governor’s Island. On the way down the river +we passed two splendid iron sailing vessels,--the German ship “H. +Bischoff,” which had just arrived after an extraordinarily long passage +of two hundred and eighteen days from Hong Kong; and the British ship +“Walter H. Wilson,” being one of only a few English vessels named after +individuals. + +The second tow-boat left us at Governor’s Island, and afterward it was +extremely slow work, as the speed at no time was greater than four +knots an hour. Off Tompkinsville we passed the battle-ship “Indiana” +and the cruiser “New York,” each of which we saluted with three dips of +the ensign, which were returned in kind. We could see the sailors on +the men-of-war gather in crowds to watch us drag slowly by, for it is +not so very frequently nowadays that a large ship flying the stars and +stripes is seen on her way to sea. + +In the lower bay we found a very light southerly wind blowing, and a +German iron bark with painted ports that had passed us outward bound, +returned and anchored in the Horseshoe, not caring to continue under +conditions somewhat unfavorable. However, we kept on, and commenced +to make sail off the point of the Hook; and I must here assert that I +never saw such confusion as reigned during this operation. The disorder +when hauling into the stream was bad enough, but when the command was +given to cast off the gaskets the ship was in a perfect whirl till the +mizzen sky-sail had been swayed aloft, and as it takes several hours +to make sail when first leaving port, the mates were almost out of +their minds when the job had been finished. All hands began with the +customary blackguarding of the men who had bent the sails, and the +second mate passed the afternoon taking his oath that he “never did see +quite the like of the mess them riggers had made aloft,” while the men +were jumping about the decks like headless chickens, trying to find +where the various ropes led to, for no two ships are rigged alike. It +may be imagined how confusing it is for a man to come aboard of a ship +and find that some of the sheets and clew-lines are not belayed in the +same place as in the vessel that he left only a week ago. Indeed an +intelligent second mate will often be two or three days getting the +“hang” of a sailing vessel. + +Before dark, though, everything had been straightened out, and the +ropes coiled away over the pins, and the decks at length began +to assume that well-ordered appearance so attractive in a large +square-rigger. + +The men are a far better lot than we expected to find in a Cape-Horner, +and most of them are on the sunny side of thirty-five, though there +are two or three old hulks among them. About three o’clock the drunken +sailors were hauled out of the forecastle, and they were a sight +as they yawed around, falling over ropes and capstan-bars. As the +foretop-gallant-sail was being sheeted home, the captain went down +on the main deck to have a look about the ship, when to our intense +astonishment a young tow-headed sailor, the drunkest of the lot, +lurched up to him, and, leaning against the skipper’s shoulder, poured +some tale of woe into his ear. Now, Captain Scruggs doesn’t look like +a particularly mild-tempered person, and when the man held out a +ponderous fist to shake hands with him, we didn’t know what was going +to happen. But the captain gravely gave him his hand and nodded his +head, while the man lurched forward to his companions. At six o’clock +Captain Scruggs said, “I don’t believe in giving grog to sailors at any +time, but some of the men are feeling pretty well used up from the hard +work after a long drunk ashore, so I’m going to give ’em a bracer.” +Forthwith a bucketful of diluted Jamaica rum was served out at the +cabin door, each man as his pannikin was filled nodding his thanks to +the steward. One of them, however, a very sinister-looking man, tried +to snatch the bucket away from the little steward; but the skipper +caught him at the moment, and then for the first time we heard Captain +Scruggs’s deep-sea voice. The man was so scared by the hurricane of +words hurled at him that he dropped the bucket, which luckily didn’t +capsize, and, pulling his front hair to the skipper, insisted that it +wasn’t he “who was doin’ the funny business.” + +Our first night on board began silently and peacefully, and we turned +in early after the turmoil of the day. + + ++May 12+ + + “The ship was cheered, the harbor cleared, + Merrily did we drop, + Below the kirk, below the hill, below the + Light-house top.” + +When we reached the deck this morning, the lofty Navesink highlands +had vanished beyond the horizon and we floated alone upon the ocean. +The day came on with a fresh southerly wind and a lively sea. My wife +went to bed last night sea-sick, and this morning she was very ill and +wholly given over to dismal reflections. The motion was quite severe, +and I myself felt far happier on deck than below. Indeed, it generally +takes me three or four days to grow fully accustomed to being at sea. +The captain evidently saw that I wasn’t feeling particularly robust, so +he instilled life into me by asking whether I wouldn’t like to keep +the meteorological record during the voyage, the ship being provided +with blanks for the purpose by the Hydrographic Office at Washington. +This will be very interesting work for me, and I feel quite important. + +If a man commenced guessing what we in the cabin had for breakfast +to-day, he might keep on indefinitely without hitting the mark, for we +had broiled sweet-breads! Ponder on this, ye landsmen; a week hence, +though, will see the end of our ice and therefore of the fresh meat. To +our surprise, one hundred pounds of prime beef, mutton, and chickens +for broiling came down about an hour before we sailed, beautifully +packed in a cask in alternate layers of meat and ice, and now repose +under the forecastle head in a cool place. No doubt, by exercising +a little care, much, for us aft, may be accomplished in the way of +prolonging our Lucullian banquets. Imagine a fresh, juicy roast of beef +off Cape Horn! + +Before proceeding with the history of our voyage, there may be some +readers who would like to know what sort of a ship this is in which we +are journeying, and the following is a description of the vessel. + +The “Hosea Higgins” is a powerful wooden ship, a fraction over two +thousand tons net, with a length over all of two hundred and sixty +feet, a beam of forty-four feet, and a draught of twenty-five; she was +built at Waldoboro, Maine, in 1885, and is of course classed A 1. She +is a three-master, very loftily rigged, as nearly all Yankee ships are, +crossing three sky-sail-yards, and her mainyard is ninety-five feet +long. There is but one house on the main-deck, but it is a very large +one and contains the forecastle, sail-room, galley, and carpenter-shop, +in which there is a twenty horse-power donkey engine. So many persons +have asked us at various times about the cabins of sailing ships, that +we have made a plan of the saloon and staterooms, which appears on the +opposite page. + +[Illustration: PLAN OF CABIN + + 1, captain’s room (ours); 2, spare room; 3, office; 4, steward; 5, + pantry; 6, second mate; 7, bath-room; 8, spare room (captain’s); 9, + chart-room; 10, store-room; 11, carpenter; 12, mate. A, harmonium; + B, table; C, chairs; D, sofa; E, exits; F, companion-way to poop; G, + mizzen-mast; H, dining-table; I, stove; J, vestibules; K, exits on + main-deck. + +] + + +So much for the ship; now for the monarch who commands her. Abner +Scruggs is one of a very large family of sea-faring men, and hails from +Rockland, Maine; in stature he is not exalted, but is very massive, +and before he grew stout was no doubt a powerful man, his age being +about fifty years. He is fierce of aspect, with bristling whiskers and +dark eyes that snap like electric sparks when angry; and I have never +known a man who could utter his commands in so determined, severe, and +brittle a voice. + +The mate’s name is Leander Goggins. By the way, on a sailing ship the +man who holds that position is never called the chief mate, first +officer, or anything except simply “the mate,” even if there are four +of them. Mr. Goggins was born in Chichester, England, about fifty years +ago, but left that country when a lad and became a citizen of the +United States, an unusual performance for an Englishman, who seldom +renounces his native land. He is short and small generally, talks with +a terrific cockney accent, in spite of his thirty-five years in and +about America, and possesses one of those countenances which you can’t +tell anything about; but his looks are not in his favor. One of his +most objectionable points is his fawning servility, which is never +prominent in a man who amounts to much, however humble his station. + +The second mate, Thomas Rarx, is a Nova Scotian, and is a large, +raw-boned, hearty man with a fresh complexion, and is therefore the +mate’s antithesis. You would never suppose that he was addicted to the +thumping of sailors, yet this is one of the most important duties of +the second mate of an American ship; on some of our sailing vessels +it seems to be the most important. Then there are two bosuns; one of +them, a Brooklyn youth, is a weak-looking creature, and has more the +appearance of an American District Messenger boy than that of bosun +of a Cape-Horner; perhaps his name has crushed his spirit,--it is +Jimmie Rumps. But the other bosun is a brawny Scot, David MacFoy, of +Troon; he is a splendid man, beautifully built, tall, straight, very +good-looking, and is somewhat conceited, handles the men well, and has +a cyclonic voice. + +The cook and steward are both natives of the East. The latter is from +Singapore, and is therefore a true Malay; blandness seems to be his +chief attribute, and his bashfulness allows him to do nothing but +smile and back out of sight. What there is of the cook seems to be +unexceptionable; he is a Cantonite, about four feet and a half high, +weighs possibly ninety pounds, and is a tip-top sea-cook. + +Next comes the carpenter, whose only name aboard ship is “Chips.” +Instead of a neat, clean person, redolent of pine shavings and +saw-dust, our carpenter is a very dirty, fat individual, who appears +to have been steeped for an indefinite period in a solution of +kerosene and lamp-black. Most Finns (why Russian Finn? The man who +says that will say hop-toad) seem to be dirty, however, so that he is +no exception; in weight he would go well over two hundred and thirty +pounds, and, as a whole, is the most objectionable-looking person whom +I have ever seen. You could never call him Chips. As for Sammie, the +boy, he is a short, thick, young Jew, not prepossessing in appearance, +and with an apparently wonderful capacity for doing nothing; like Peter +Simple, he looks as though he could stand a great deal of sleep. We +have seen so little of the sailors as yet that, of course, no notion of +any of them can be formed. + +We did fairly well as to distance sailed in the twenty-four hours, and +at noon we were one hundred and seventy-five miles from Sandy Hook. + + ++May 13+ + +This was a glorious morning, with a fresh breeze from the southward. +Last night the wind came whistling along in strong puffs, and we had +to stow both sky-sails and royals for it; and when I went on deck at +7.30, quite a hummocky sea was running from the southwest. My wife +was exceedingly sea-sick all night long, and clung tenaciously to the +theory that she would perish within twenty-four hours. At about ten +this morning, though, both wind and sea having gone down somewhat, my +wife consented to go on deck, so we arranged chairs on the cabin-house, +and she stayed there all day, improving every minute. By supper-time +she had a hearty longing for food, and we have no more misgivings as to +sea-sickness for the rest of the voyage. + +I rather like the way in which the second mate goes to work; he appears +to be a very fine seaman, and this is perhaps the most desirable +and necessary of all the acquirements of a second mate. He has also +considerable quiet humor; yesterday afternoon he caught sight of one +of the men who had not yet recovered the full use of his faculties, +fussing about on the mainyard; and after watching him for a few moments +he sung out, “Mainyard there, what the h---- are you gapin’ at! Cast +off that yard-arm gasket; d’ye think yer messperized?” After which, he +rolled forward, and we could see him chuckling and shaking at his own +conceit. + +Our fresh breeze wafted us across two hundred and twenty miles of the +North Atlantic yesterday, and at noon we were in latitude 39° 22′ +north; longitude, 65° 8′ west. + + ++May 14+ + +Another fine day with the same fresh breeze from the southward, and +the captain is busy shaking hands with himself on his good offing; +remembering the German who turned back and anchored in the Horseshoe, +he mutters from time to time, “Oh, I wish I was under Sandy Hook, I +don’t think.” We couldn’t carry the sky-sails last night, but they +were set this forenoon, and we are now doing fully ten knots. My wife +has entirely recovered, and is amusing herself with the three cats +on board. One of them is a splendid animal, a pure Maltese, whose +companion is a so-called coon cat; both of them belong to the captain. +The third beast is the mate’s, an unfortunate, weird, black-and-white +alley-cat, tall and lank, and as hideous as a nightmare. + +It is remarkable how good the eating is on board; for although on many +ships the meat, flour, etc., are often the best that can be bought, +everything is frequently spoiled by villainous cookery; even our coffee +is as good as people generally have ashore. Captain Scruggs told us +before we sailed that he was a dyspeptic, and said that he had to +be very particular about what he ate. On this we somewhat callously +congratulated ourselves; and, sure enough, the skipper’s stomachic +infirmities have insured us none but the best of everything. It might +be here remarked that we brought absolutely nothing with us in the +way of provisions. It is customary for captains to ascertain what +their prospective passengers’ preferences are before storing the ship; +and, as I knew the company who had the vitualling of the ship, it was +certain that nothing better could be bought. Indeed, the average ship +in these days carries such an abundance and variety of wholesome food, +that unless one cared to take along such absurd edibles as patés and +the like, the food question can very well take care of itself. + +The mate, Leander Goggins, entertained us at breakfast this morning +with some more or less remarkable conversation. It really seems +impossible that a man can hate his native country as he does; and he +gave an affirmative reply to Scott’s famous question,-- + + “Breathes there the man with soul so dead + Who never to himself hath said, + ‘This is my own, my native land?’” + +The skipper jollies him up constantly about his still being an +Englishman in spite of his citizen’s papers, and this morning the mate +couldn’t withstand it any longer, and delivered himself as follows, +with great intensity: “Cap’n Scruggs, sir, I thank God I left Hengland +w’en I were eleven year hold, sir. I tell you, cap’n, and you too, +sir, it ain’t no fit country for a man to call himself a native of. +A pore man carn’t take off ’is ’at to a lord, sir; ho, no; ’e’s got +to bow and sheer and pull ’is front ’air; and if hit’s a lady, why ’e +mustn’t look at all.” This was enough to disgust any one with him; +and he made so strange an appearance with his weather-stained face, +bleary little eyes, and heavily veined temples, that I almost shouted +when he finished. A great slashing scar on his chin, when his stubby +beard permits it to be seen, doesn’t add much to his personal charms. +Later on he began to talk about Captain Bob Waterman, perhaps the most +unpleasantly notorious ship-master in the old New York-California +trade. The mate averred that he had sailed with “Cap’n Bob,” and +he added that the yarn about Cap’n Bob’s having cast off the lee +main-brace in a Cape Horn squall one night, jerking half a dozen men +into the sea just because he didn’t like them, he had always considered +as probable. “’E shot ’is own child, you know,” pleasantly added Mr. +Goggins, as though he were mentioning the killing of a chicken. + +At noon we were six hundred and fifty miles from Sandy Hook, in +latitude 38° 58′ north; longitude, 60° 14′ west. + + ++May 15+ + +Glorious weather, with southwest winds as fresh as ever; it is growing +much warmer, and the temperature of the water has risen to 71°, making +it possible to bathe in it without much gasping. + +Shortly after breakfast the captain asked us if we wouldn’t like to +go forward and see him catch a bonito, as there were several playing +about the forefoot. So we went up on the forecastle head, sat down on +the gammoning-iron, and watched the skipper creep out on the bowsprit +with a cod-line and a hook baited with a bit of rag in his hand. Then +he went through various manœuvres necessary in the capture of these +deep-sea fish, and incidentally nearly manœuvred himself off the +jib-boom. The scheme consisted in dropping the rag swiftly down till it +touched the water, and instantly jerking it upward again, to excite the +imagination of the fish, I suppose. They looked very fine darting about +at great speed several feet beneath the surface, being of a brilliant +hue, and at first we thought that they were young dolphins,--that is, +the dolphin of sailors. At length, after innumerable vain efforts, +accompanied with much hard breathing and damning of the fish’s eyes, +the captain hooked one and hauled him up, snapping and fighting till he +was dropped into a gunny sack held by one of the men. He looked like a +plump mackerel, weighed six pounds, and will afford a little variety to +our evening repast. + +This afternoon the skipper said that I ought to have a pair of +sea-slippers; so he vanished into the slop-chest (the technical name +for the apartment where all sorts of wearing apparel for the crew is +kept) and emerged with the most uncomfortable looking foot-gear +that I ever beheld. The slippers (?) were made of immensely thick red +grain-leather, with heavy, pegged soles, as inflexible as plate armor +and as easy-looking as Belgian sabots. The captain said that they were +as tight as sea-boots, if I kept the water from flowing over the tops, +adding, “I’ll tell you what I do: in cold, wet weather I just haul a +pair of heavy socks right over the outside of the slippers and make +boots of ’em.” + +At a quarter to five this afternoon we sighted a steamer on the lee +bow, and as there was a chance of signalling her, and she was bound to +the westward, we put our helm up a little and kept away a couple of +points. At 5.30 she was abreast of us, and we hoisted our number and +“report me all well,” to which she hoisted her answering pennant. She +was a very large English cargo-boat, one of that new style of tramp +freighters with one funnel, two pole-masts, and a great sheer. She +seemed to be making more than ten knots (though the snow-drift under +her bows indicated about twenty-five), and should therefore reach New +York in time to be reported in next Wednesday’s papers. Latitude at +noon, 38° 31′ north; longitude, 55° 2′ west. + + ++May 16+ + +Our first Sabbath at sea broke calm and warm. When we went on deck +at seven bells not a breath of air was stirring, the ship had no +steerage-way, and an oily calm lay upon the face of the deep, recalling +memories of our previous voyage, when, in this very part of the ocean +in the month of July, we averaged twenty miles a day for twenty-one +days. Four hundred and twenty miles in three weeks wouldn’t burn a +ship’s copper off; it is about three-quarters of one day’s run of the +fastest express steamers. + +It was truly hot this afternoon, for the calm prevailed all day; but +fortunately there was quite a swell present, in which we rolled about, +creating pleasant draughts from the slatting sails. How orderly and +quiet a ship is on a Sunday afternoon when the weather is mild and +clear! Every rope, every implement, is in its place, the decks have +been washed as clean as hard scrubbing can make them, and the brass +mountings shine like mirrors. Coiled away in shady nooks lie the watch, +each with a book or paper in his hand, deep buried in its contents. +Some recline in the waterways under shadow of the bulwarks, others +in the shade of the deck-house; some on the forecastle-head, where +cool airs circulate from the swinging of the big foresail and jibs. +The only audible sounds are the flapping of the sails, the somnolent +cheeping of the blocks, and the working of the rudder-head as the ship +rolls about in the swell, with perhaps the low tones of a man’s voice +humming an air to himself on the main-hatch. A more peaceful scene it +would be impossible to find than that presented by a large ship thus +becalmed,--more tranquil and solemn than the little country hamlet +dozing in the drowsiness of a mid-summer, Sabbath afternoon. + +Let a breeze come along, though, from an unexpected quarter, and in an +instant everything starts into life. “Square the crojjick-yard!” comes +with startling suddenness from the officer of the watch. In a moment +the half-hidden forms of the men spring with a bound from their cool +retreats, and the forward part of the ship resounds with their deep +voices as they come rolling aft, each repeating the order, “Square the +crojjick-yard, sir.” Aft they come in a shuffling trot,--not slovenly, +but in a cheerful way,--and the ponderous yards creak slowly round to +the hoarse tones of the bosun. + +It is during such scenes as this that the magic of the sea takes hold +of the imaginative mind. The remembrance of gales of wind, and of +hail and sleet and snow fade utterly from the memory, and the mind is +conscious only of the inexpressible charm which the mighty deep exerts +over those who truly love the sea and go down to it in ships. + +After breakfast this morning the mate told me how oranges are loaded +at Tahiti, by hauling the vessels up under the trees which overhang +the water and shaking the fruit into the hold. Already Mr. Goggins +is beginning to growl at the weather. What he wants all the time is +“just enough to show the sky-sails to, sir.” We had a little more wind +after breakfast, it is true, but it came from the southeast and let +go at ten. Last night, just before we turned in, some Mother Cary’s +chickens which were flying around the ship began to utter their quaint, +plaintive cries, at which Captain Scruggs and the mate shuddered and +looked grave. I asked Mr. Goggins what was wrong, and he replied, +“Whenever the blarsted birds cry, there’s sure to be a long spell o’ +light weather.” + +It is strange what disdain merchant skippers have for yachting, nor +can they ever understand why a man should expend so much on a vessel +without trying to derive some income from the same. I happened to +mention to the skipper last evening that I once chartered a pine-apple +schooner at Nassau and took a party of friends on a cruise through the +Bahamas. “After shells, I suppose,” quoth the worthy man, thinking +that my scheme was to load up with the beautiful shells found in those +islands and take them across to the mainland and sell them. Again I +told him that my most cherished scheme was to navigate the South Seas +in an auxiliary yacht. “Yes,” he answered, “it’s a good notion; trading +ain’t dead there yet.” Perhaps the most amusing incident of this sort +happened once when I was on board a yacht lying at Vineyard Haven. A +large three-masted schooner came in, having lost her mizzentop-mast. +The owner of the yacht pulled aboard of the schooner and looked her +over, and then asked her captain and mate back to the yacht. Of course +they admired her exceedingly, and as she was quite a large boat, they +observed that it must cost a sight to run her. Finally, when they were +about to return to their own vessel, the skipper asked, gravely and in +perfect good faith, “What I don’t understand is, how do you make her +pay?” Latitude, 37° 50′ north; longitude, 53° 40′ west. + + ++May 17+ + +Perhaps we may change our opinion before the voyage is over. Perhaps +we may not. I have seen enough of the skipper to know that this voyage +is not going to be exquisitely pleasant for ourselves, the mates, or +the men. A little disturbance started this forenoon in the following +manner: A barrel of carrots, onions, and parsnips had been rolled under +the forecastle-head by the mate, who then forgot all about it; so that, +instead of giving it to the cook, he allowed the green stuff to wilt +and wither in the heat of the past forty-eight hours. The captain heard +of this for the first time to-day, and ever since not a single thing +has gone right for him. We first noticed that something was amiss with +the skipper by the tone he used to the helmsman at eleven o’clock, when +he told him to “hold her up a little more.” The man obeyed instantly, +but made an inexcusable mistake: he forgot to answer, and in this he +was, of course, wrong, for he should have either repeated the order or +said, “Ay, ay, sir.” The captain then told him in forcible language +what would happen to men who failed to answer. We thought that the +matter was settled, when the mate came aft from the break of the poop +on a run, thrust his fist through the wheel-house window in the man’s +face and snarled, “Now, luk ud ’ere, ain’t I told yer to answer w’en +yer spoken to, eh? Well, you just do it, or _I’ll_ teach yer to +open yer mouth; I’ll _fix_ yer.” Innocent words, comparatively +speaking, but no one can imagine the intensity of emphasis on the +“fix,” or the malignant, hazing tone which the mate threw into his +threat. The skipper had just “jumped on” the mate, and, of course, the +latter must find some one to retaliate on, and here was an opportunity. +The boy Sammie, too, came in for his share of attention, but it must be +said that this slothful youth deserved it; and, finally, the skipper +and mate came to words at dinner about a barrel of hard bread. Captain +Scruggs graduated years ago with high honors in the art of nagging, and +at last he provoked Mr. Goggins beyond endurance. “Goddlemighty, Cap’n +Scruggs, if I ain’t seen no ship-bread, ’ow could I break it out?” We +expected an explosion from the old man, but he only tugged fiercely at +his whiskers and shut the mate up with, “All right, sir; all right. We +won’t continue the argument.” As the day wore on his temper grew worse +and worse; and when I called his attention to a school of fish playing +alongside, supposing that he would like to see them, he answered +tartly, “Very well, sir; you’d better jump overboard and catch ’em.” I +thought it best not to reply; but it was very annoying, for some of the +men hard by smiled broadly. + +It must be acknowledged that the thought of being obliged to sit +opposite to this man at table three times a day for at least four +months is a disagreeable one, and this is not a cheerful meditation at +the very beginning of a voyage. Yet, the captain has proved that in +some ways he is very kind and considerate; but he has that hard, flinty +voice and overbearing manner, an instance of which the reader can +doubtless recall among his seafaring friends. + +Throughout nearly the entire day we had an almost perfect calm; this, +of course, aggravated the old man’s temper, for he seems to be a most +intolerant individual. So little headway did we make that at noon we +were in latitude 37° 22′ north; longitude, 52° 39′ west. + + ++May 18+ + +We had another sample of American ship “discipline” this morning. We +went on deck at 7.30 to eat some fruit before breakfast, and as soon as +the skipper hove in sight it was plain that he was looking for trouble. +Presently the mate appeared, and it was evident from his countenance +that he had found the trouble the captain was looking for. In a little +while two of the men came aft, each with a case of oil in his arms, +which they deposited on deck by the wheel-house, preparatory to passing +them down into the lazarette. One of the hands, Brün, an inoffensive, +quiet Norwegian (the most peaceable sailors in the world), happened to +put his case down with the lettered side underneath, which displeased +the skipper, who asked him, in his ogre’s voice, if he hadn’t told him +the way to handle case-oil. Now, the man was evidently doing the very +best he could, which was evident from his great desire to please, and +also from the way in which his hands shook. Finally he grew so nervous +that when he picked up the case to turn it over, it slipped and fell +with a loud noise on the deck. At this the poor fellow jumped back +several feet and put up his arm to ward off the expected blow; but the +skipper saw plainly that it was an accident and was going to let the +matter pass, when the mate jumped in between them and, catching a firm +hold of Brün’s right ear, gave it a terrific wrench, that slued him +round and brought him to his knees, while he yelled, “Ain’t _I_ +told yer how to lay them cases down?” + +Such scenes as this are extremely unpleasant, particularly as they are +always accompanied with boisterous language; and, as we saw the whole +affair, I can say with certainty that it was absolutely unprovoked and +unnecessary. If the man had been of a surly or ugly disposition, and +intentionally put the case down wrongly, some excuse might be in order +for the mate’s conduct; but this fellow has always been unobtrusive, +and actually jumps in his desire to please. It is generally men of +a certain temperament that mates pick out to haze,--men with no +appearance of “sand.” I have never known a man of Mr. Goggins’s sort to +try it on a determined-looking, deliberate seaman. + +How calm it was until five o’clock yesterday afternoon! The sea was as +if oiled and of a rich blue, fascinating to contemplate and deeper in +color than usual. No stream that ever cascaded down a mountain-side +could approach in transparency the sea-water as found in the remote +solitudes of the ocean. We had a strange sunset, too, the horizon +being apparently at an immense distance, with whole chains of ragged, +golden-tipped clouds, like jagged mountain rocks, seemingly a hundred +miles away. We had a fine breeze all day from east-northeast, which, +it is true, jammed us on the wind, but it was fresh enough to blow us +along at seven knots. Latitude at noon, 36° 5′ north; longitude, 50° +36′ west. + + ++May 19+ + +This was perhaps the finest day which we have had yet. It broke with +the heavens obscured; but during the forenoon the clouds melted under +the influence of the sun and an afternoon of dazzling brilliancy +followed. A fresh breeze whistled out of the east-northeast, giving us +as much as we could show the sky-sails to; and the ocean was covered +with foam-topped waves like immense snow flakes, the crests of which +often came tumbling in glee over the weather side. + +Yesterday afternoon at two o’clock we rose the upper canvas of a bark +on the port bow, bound in the same direction as ourselves; at 4.30 she +was abeam, and at seven in the evening, her trucks had vanished below +the horizon astern! In truth this ship is a flyer on a wind, for, in +order to pass the other vessel in so short a time, we must have sailed +almost, if not quite, two miles to her one. Again, this morning at +daylight, we made out the sails of a ship hull down to leeward; she was +then abeam, steering about southeast, but during the afternoon we ran +her out of sight, too. For the past twenty-four hours we have certainly +done splendidly, logging one hundred and ninety-eight miles, hauled +as close to the wind as possible. Captain Scruggs even went so far as +to say that he thought that there were only two other American ships +afloat that could have made more than two hundred miles to-day by the +wind,--the “Henry B. Hyde” and the “A. G. Ropes.” Later I asked the +skipper which he considered was the finest all-round wooden ship under +the flag to-day; his answer instantly was, “the ’Hyde’ by all odds; and +not only that, but she’s one of the finest ships that ever came out +of a Maine ship-yard.” She was built about ten years ago in Bath, by +John McDonald, a Nova Scotian and a pupil of the famous Donald Mackay +of Boston, who turned out so many celebrated clippers thirty or forty +years ago. The “Hyde” is a large ship, registering twenty-five hundred +tons; but in spite of her size she is a three-master, being, I believe, +the second largest ship of this rig at the present time, the British +ship “Ditton” heading the roll of three-masters with a net tonnage of +about twenty-eight hundred. Almost all sailing vessels of over two +thousand tons register are now built with four masts. + +Last night I was talking with the mate about sea-birds, and he was +giving me considerable information of the birds on the Pacific coast, +when he said, suddenly, “I see a ’awk at sea once, sir.” “Indeed,” said +I, “that is very interesting, for the bird is almost extinct; it must +have been a long time ago, for even the eggs now are quite valuable.” +He looked very hard at me then for a few moments, when the captain +called him away; and for some time I wondered why he had stared at me +so fixedly; when all at once I realized that he meant hawk, not auk! +Latitude, 34° 4′ north; longitude, 47° 15′ west. + + ++May 20+ + +Light showers prevailed this morning early, but at ten the clouds +disappeared, leaving a sky of deep cobalt and a glorious, sparkling +sea. Fresh winds from east-northeast blew all day, giving us frequently +ten knots, the ship driving along with the even, modulated swing of a +pendulum. The mate says that Captain Scruggs is so lucky in making fast +passages that in New York they say that he carries a fair wind in his +pocket and spills it out when necessary. However true this may be, the +direction of the wind could be easily improved at the present time, by +hauling more to the northward, so that we could come up a little; our +position, too, would be a far better one if we were five or six degrees +more to the eastward, as it is a little too soon to make so much +southing. _Nolens volens_, though, southeast has been our course +for some time, and the skipper jocosely remarks that he expects to see +San Roque this time. + +We are now in the approximate position of the American iron ship “May +Flint” (late steamer “Persian Monarch”), one of the largest sailing +vessels under our flag, when she was hove down and dismasted about a +year ago in a cyclone. Captain Nickels subsequently accomplished so +fine a piece of seamanship that a short account of the whole affair +might not prove uninteresting. The vessel left Philadelphia bound +to Hiogo with a cargo of case-oil on August 21, and on September 8, +about four hundred miles from the Azores, she encountered a gale +which gradually increased to a tremendous hurricane, in the centre of +which she became involved; and shortly afterward she was hove on her +beam ends and the fore and maintop-masts and mizzentop-gallant-masts, +together with all standing gear above the lower mast-heads went by +the board. Her condition was really terrible, as all hands were in +momentary expectation of seeing some of the broken spars alongside +stave in the hull, as the wreckage was battering and thumping +furiously against the ship. A steamer was sighted later on,--the +“Craftsman,”--which stood by the “Flint” till the weather moderated, +and then offered to tow her to New York. This offer Captain Nickels +refused, though at their request he transshipped his two passengers, +one a Boston and the other a Chicago man, and they returned to New York +on the “Craftsman.” It is reasonable to presume that neither of these +individuals will ever step over the side of another sailing ship. + +When the cyclone had passed and the ship had come up on an even keel, +Captain Nickels surveyed the wreck aloft and then decided on his +course, which was as follows: a part of the spars and rigging having +been saved, a foretop-mast was made from a spare spar, and the stump +of an old mizzentop-gallant-mast was used for a foretop-gallant-mast. +The ship carried a spare fore-yard, the lower foretop-sail-yard was +intact, and the upper maintop-sail-yard was utilized for an upper fore; +the foretop-gallant- and royal-yards were saved, thus square-rigging +the vessel forward. A portion of the main-yard, which was broken, was +used for a maintop-mast, leaving the mainmast fore-and-aft rigged. +The mizzentop-gallant-mast, which was apparently hopelessly damaged, +was fished and repaired together with all the yards below it, so that +the vessel was square-rigged forward and aft, but schooner-rigged +amidships, presenting a most extraordinary appearance. She looked at a +distance somewhat like two hermaphrodite brigs, yet after the repairs +had been made, which occupied fifteen days, she was successfully +navigated into New York harbor, a distance of two thousand two hundred +miles, and on one day logged the extremely good run of two hundred and +forty knots. For this fine performance the underwriters presented the +gallant captain with a superb gold watch, and well he deserved it, +for it was an act of seamanship so bold and unusual as to command the +applause of Captain Nickels’s fellow ship-masters, a class of men who, +as a rule, are extremely reserved in their expressions of approbation. +Latitude, 31° 34′ north; longitude, 42° 10′ west. + + ++May 21+ + +Last night was windy, with a severe squall at one o’clock in the +morning, with much rain, and we haven’t seen the sky-sails since six +last evening. + +As I was leaning against the rail yesterday afternoon, looking at the +mizzen-stay being set up by the starboard watch, the captain came up +and said, “I’ve found out we’ve got another cap’n aboard, a fellow +called Murphy, I believe. I’m going to send him aft to run the ship, +and I’m going forrad to sleep in the fo’c’sle.” The skipper has a +curious way of saying such things, and we never know whether to smile +or not. Presently, though, he cast joking aside and began to blackguard +Murphy in the language of the deep sea, saying that when he (the +captain) had gone forward to see that the regular weekly washing out +of the forecastle was properly done, some of the men did not seem to +relish the process, and he heard Murphy grumble. Now, when a foremast +hand has been somewhat disagreeable for a few days, and at length finds +audible fault with various things, it is almost certain that some one +hour in the succeeding twenty-four will be unpleasant for him. Thus +with Murphy. After supper we were sitting on the deck-house, when +Captain Scruggs came up and said that at eight bells the decision would +be reached, whether or not there were two captains aboard. He was very +nervous and couldn’t sit still; which reminds me that I have never +yet seen a long-voyage skipper who wasn’t nervous at even the mildest +encounter with the men. + +The evening shades fell early, by reason of heavy clouds, and at eight +o’clock it was dark. Word was passed forward that both watches were to +muster aft, and when eight bells had been struck, the eighteen seamen +(including the bosuns) came trooping down from forward and grouped +themselves at the after hatch. Here I sent my wife below, fearing +scenes which she ought not to witness; while the captain at the same +moment passed out of the cabin to the main deck and faced the men. + +It was an impressive, rugged scene. The wind was puffy and uncertain +and the decks were wet; and though it was too dark to see the men’s +expressions, their forms stood out clearly enough as they rolled from +side to side with the heave of the ship, two broad beams of light +shooting out from the cabin doors and illuminating the showers of +spray that flew incessantly over the weather side; the great main-sail +bridging over the scene with its huge curve, till lost in the gloom of +the upper sails. + +As soon as the captain appeared, he began to pace athwartships between +the hatch and the poop, keeping it up for several minutes in a dead +silence. How well he knows how to handle a crew! Nothing is more +effective than such a silence, for it shows the men that the skipper is +about to act with deliberation. Suddenly he unexpectedly rapped out, +“Go forrad, the port watch”; and the nine men quickly disappeared, +wondrous glad to escape, no doubt. Now what the captain said to the +rest I could not hear, for the wind cut his words off short; but he +walked up among the men, shouldering his way roughly through them, +until he stood directly in front of Murphy, who, though putting on some +“side,” shrunk back from the glare that I knew shot from the old man’s +eye. He spoke to him in the fierce, intense tones of a thoroughly angry +man; and, after a considerable harangue, he seized Murphy by his nasal +extremity, the size of which afforded him excellent holding ground, and +led the recalcitrant youth around in a small circle, every few seconds +tweaking and twisting his nose, till I was surprised that it did not +part company with the rest of his face. This done, he sent the men +forward, entered the cabin, sat down, and joined us in a game of casino. + +At first this seemed a very puerile manner of administering punishment, +but it is considered wonderfully effective, and, in truth, it is +humiliating to be hauled about by the nose in the presence of one’s +companions. I had expected that Murphy would have been floored with a +belaying-pin, that handy instrument of correction which most American +masters and mates know so well how to wield. But Captain Scruggs seems +to be restraining himself, owing in part, no doubt, to our presence +on board, though chiefly to the space which the newspapers have +been devoting lately to aggravated cases of cruelty at sea. Indeed, +the skipper himself said the other day, “What’s a ship-master to do +nowadays, when the press jumps on him when he gets ashore?” He forgets +that if the said ship-master conducted himself at sea like the captain +of a ship ought to, the press would have no cause for writing him up. + +The course has been poor, with the wind at times to the southward of +east, and, horrible to relate, we made a degree of westing in the +twenty-four hours. If we don’t have a better chance than this, we’ll be +jammed on San Roque in earnest. Latitude 28° 30′ north; longitude, 43° +west. + + ++May 22+ + +It is necessary here to make an announcement of a very painful nature, +an announcement of a fact so lamentable and unfortunate that for a +long while we tried to believe that it could not be. Captain Scruggs +has several times in the last week been very much under the influence +of strong liquor! More than once we have noticed that he exhibited a +strange uncertainty in his gait, and for two days he has been unusually +aggressive and sometimes silly in his arguments. Still, neither of us +would acknowledge to the other that which we knew in our hearts was +true, until last evening at supper his conduct compelled us to admit +the shocking fact that the master of the ship in which we have but +just commenced one of the longest and stormiest of voyages was plainly +drunk. He had to steady himself against the mizzen-mast at the end +of the dining-room before he could sit down, and during the meal he +was for a time a drooling idiot. His chief amusement seemed to lie in +spilling small quantities of maple syrup over the table-cloth, in which +he then dabbled with his fingers, like a boy with his feet in a puddle. +The syrup appeared to revive memories of his childhood, for he told +us stories of his passion for this fluid when a youth. Said he: “Why, +I used to go out in the woods, tap a maple-tree, and let two gallons +of surrup run into me.” No one said a word. “Two gallons!” glaring +fiercely at the mate, who, of course, didn’t offer any objection. +Then he caught sight of a small wash-tub, and, turning on the mate +again, cried out violently, “When I was a boy, I used to could drink +that right down full er maple surrup. This ’ere hain’t surrup; h’its +mucilage.” Here we excused ourselves and went on deck. + +Now, what is all this going to lead to? Pleasant thought, that of +knocking about in a gale of wind off Cape Horn with a groggy skipper in +charge! Indeed, when we first discovered his bibulous inclination, my +wife was in despair, and the only consolation we have is to be found +in the hope that the case of whiskey that we have seen is the only +one on board. We can account now, too, for the innumerable times that +the captain has popped into his little room, only to emerge in a few +seconds, smelling furiously of Florida-water. Well, we’ll probably have +fine, light weather through the northeast Trades, which we are now sure +that we have taken; and at the rate at which the grog is vanishing at +present, it will be gone before we reach the squally Doldrums, provided +that the skipper has but one case. + +In a copy of a nautical magazine on board, I saw an account of a +singular fact that occurred a short while ago. The British ship +“Crompton” was homeward bound a few months since, from Calcutta to +Dundee, when one morning Captain Lloyd sighted something ahead which +seemed to be either a capsized vessel or the back of a whale. As the +vessel approached, however, the captain saw that it was neither, but +a rock, about sixty feet long, eight feet high, and the same broad. +He could scarcely believe his senses, for the position of the rock +was 47° north and 37° 20′ west! Imagine a rock’s existing in the most +crowded ocean on the globe, almost every square mile of which it was +reasonable that at least one vessel had traversed, which had never been +seen or reported before! For some time Captain Lloyd could not believe +that it really was a rock, and so to verify it he sailed as close to +it as possible; and as the morning was a perfectly clear one, and the +hour twenty minutes to eight, he was at last compelled to believe the +evidence of his eyes, that here was a large rock, extremely dangerous +to navigation, lying five hundred miles north-northwest of the Azores! + +Speaking of those balmy isles reminds one of that ardent, skilful +yachtsman, the Prince of Monaco. About two years ago, while prosecuting +some deep-sea soundings in the vicinity of the Azores on his steam +yacht, he found a bank or ledge which rose from a depth of about +two thousand fathoms to one of something like fifty fathoms, which, +like the aforementioned rock, had never been charted or reported. So +extremely zealous is the prince in his pursuit of knowledge concerning +the floor of the Atlantic, that he shortly afterward gave an order +for a twelve-hundred-ton steam yacht (he can well afford it!) fitted +with the most recent inventions in connection with deep-sea sounding +apparatus. I wonder whether he will use the machine for this purpose +invented by Captain Sigsbee, who commanded the battleship “Maine” at +the time of her destruction. It is said that Lord Kelvin, who, when +Sir William Thompson, invented the famous sounding machine which bears +his name, has stated that Captain Sigsbee has adopted an idea in +his apparatus which he (Lord Kelvin) had vainly sought for years to +utilize in his mechanism. If this be true, Captain Sigsbee has reason +to be a very proud man, for Lord Kelvin is, perhaps, the most learned +individual now living on hydro-dynamics and kindred sciences. + +Last voyage it took us exactly a month in which to reach this spot +where we are now, which illustrates how uncertain and erratic long +voyages are. All fear of being “stuck” in this region, as we were +before, has disappeared, for the Trades have come now without +question; and while they are quite fresh enough to suit us, we would +like to see the wind back two points to the northward. Latitude, 26° +18′ north; longitude, 41° 9′ west. + + ++May 23+ + +Last night was a windy one, and in the middle watch we split the +mizzen-royal in a severe squall; so we took in the fore- and +main-royals, the sea being choppy and the vessel plunging a good +deal. It is customary to cut the light sails in such a manner that a +fore-sky-sail will answer for a mizzen-royal; therefore, toward the +end of the morning watch the fore-sky-sail was unbent and stretched +on the mizzen-royal-yard, the royals having been set again an hour or +so previously. It didn’t fit particularly well, but it will do until +to-morrow, when the royal will be repaired, as such work is not done on +Sunday unless in case of urgent need. Sometimes there is necessity for +hard work on the Sabbath aboard ship, such an instance having occurred +on the “Hosea Higgins” on her last homeward voyage from San Francisco. +It might be first observed that, though it is the custom to give the +men a holiday on Sunday, still if the captain orders anything done, he +must be obeyed without murmur. On this particular occasion, Captain +Scruggs saw fit to order one of the bosuns to do some work aloft, which +he refused. The skipper went down on the main deck then and spoke to +the man, a lusty young German, asking him why he refused to turn to. + +“Because it’s Soonday, zur,” he replied. + +“Sunday? Never heard of it. What is Sunday? Who told you anything about +it?” quizzed the old man. + +“I say, a man’s not supposed to turn to on Soonday, zur,” repeated the +bosun. + +“Oh, he’s not,” quoth the skipper; “then we always put him where he’ll +have plenty of leisure. Mr. Goggins, the irons.” + +(This same mate came around from California in the “Higgins.”) + +The irons were brought, and the man, quietly enough, but with angry +eye and sneering lip, put his hands behind him; the irons were locked +on, and he was led down into the lazarette, where he sat calmly down, +and the key was turned. Six hours afterward the mate went to him with +some food and found that the man had in some way contrived to shift +his hands around in front and was disposed to be ugly. Therefore he +was taken up into the after part of the wheel-house (these structures +on American ships are divided into equal portions, one containing the +wheel and binnacle, the other the rudder-head, tiller, flag-locker, +etc.), where a staple was driven into a carling, to which the man’s +hands, still ironed, were secured, leaving him so that he could not +sit down, his wrists being about six inches above his head. Now, this +posture for twelve hours is enough to break the heart of a wild beast; +yet this bosun stood there without a word for thirty hours, refusing +food or drink during that time! At the end of every six hours or so the +mate went to him and asked if he had had enough, to which the Teuton +would answer “Naw.” His endurance yielded at the thirtieth hour and he +implored to be released, which he was six hours later, and for the rest +of the passage he was a model sailor. + +At this time we are on or near a favorite whaling ground, great +numbers of these leviathans being taken in this vicinity every year +by schooners. In the old days a first-class whaling bark cost about +thirty-five thousand dollars, and was manned by perhaps thirty Western +Islanders, or natives of the Azores. They were owned by companies who +supplied the vessels with provisions, clothes, and outfits, and also +advanced certain sums of money to captain and crew (which did not go to +crimps as it does now) while they were away on a three years’ cruise. +No wages were ever paid to any one, but all hands received a percentage +when the ship returned, the bulk, which remained, being divided among +the stockholders. The most lucrative whaling voyage of which there is +any record was made by the “Onward” of New Bedford, which, after a +forty-one months’ voyage, stocked two hundred and seventy-five thousand +dollars, the captain’s share alone amounting to thirty-three thousand. +More startling even than that is the fact that during the fifty-two +years which formed the golden era of Massachusetts’s whaling industry +the total value of whale products landed in New Bedford alone amounted +to one hundred and forty-five million dollars! + +We had quite an agreeable shock this morning when the carpenter walked +aft to breakfast with a clean, new, checked shirt on, it being Sunday. +He had combed the sawdust and other little inconveniences out of his +unctuous locks, and he made quite a respectable appearance as he +wabbled into the cabin. + +Fresh Trades blew all day, and we have made good a course about +south-southeast. Latitude, 23° 28′ north; longitude, 40° 15′ west. + + ++May 24+ + +This day broke with a strong breeze and a cloudy sky; but, as usual, +the vapor cleared away at ten o’clock and a superb afternoon followed. + +Nearly all wooden ships have to be pumped out twice every day, once +in the morning watch and again at six in the evening. It is almost +impossible to build a tight wooden vessel of any size, and the rougher +the sea the more water she will make, on account of laboring. Of +course, the leakage varies greatly, but I suppose that our own is an +average one, about one thousand strokes of the pumps being necessary +to free the ship at each session of thirty minutes, and the aperture +through which the water escapes is about as large as a fire-hose. + +Last evening, sadly needing exercise, I descended to the main-deck +after supper and announced to Jimmie Rumps, the young starboard watch +bosun, that it was my intention to assist in pumping ship, if the men +had no objection; at which they smiled, while Rumps assured me that any +such assistance would be eagerly welcomed. A ship’s pumps are worked +by means of handle-bars attached to large, heavy fly-wheels, six feet +in diameter; and the motion of pumping is similar to the old-fashioned +way of lifting rock out of an excavation by man-power derricks. I +therefore grasped the handle-bar with the reckless assurance of a +man who knows not what he does, having opposite to me a raw-boned, +powerful Englishman, Coleman. “Shake her up” came from the second +mate in another moment; and, urged by the strong arms of the men, the +great wheels began to slowly revolve. As moments passed, though with +no indication of acceleration in the speed, I began to fear that after +all I was not to find much exercise in this way, when all at once there +was a distinct increase in the movement, and my breath came shorter and +quicker. Faster and yet faster flew the iron handles till we must have +been doing sixty revolutions to the minute. I was nearly pitched off +my feet at every turn, and my head commenced to swim. Usually, at the +end of fifteen minutes, a halt is called for a breathing-spell; but now +we went on and on with no signs of cessation, and the men wrought with +wooden faces. Then instantly I saw that they were having their joke, +initiating me, as it were, and that they had no intention of resting +till the trick was over. The pace was quite frightful; but I decided +to faint on the deck rather than yield. Round went the relentless, +cruel handles, carrying me with them, like a nautical Don Quixote +on the windmill, while Jimmie Rumps, that young limb of Satan, made +facetious observations, at which the men smiled compassionately. + +“Fine exercise this, mister”; and, “How’d you like to do this when +we’re turnin’ the Corner with two feet of water on deck?” + +A ghastly smile was the only answer that I could summon, and in five +minutes more I should certainly have succumbed to dizziness and want +of breath, when I heard the voice of the mate, sounding strange and +distant, “That’ll do the pumps.” I let go the handle, grinned like +a skull to show how happy I was, summoned all my strength, tottered +to the poop ladder, crawled up, fell into a deck-chair and for five +minutes endured the bitter agonies of a man thoroughly “pumped.” This +was a good deal better than giving in, however, and it is my intention +to hammer away at it for the rest of the voyage. + +To-day the sun was overhead at noon, the declination and latitude being +the same. We made a somewhat better course during the past twenty-four +hours, about south 30° east, and a heavy bank in the northeast presages +a breeze from that quarter, so that we may come up a couple of points +farther. The captain continues his libations with no indication of a +change; evil as the thing is, though, there is some compensation in it +for us, as he is usually asleep in his room all day. An ill wind, and +so on. Latitude 20° 3′ north; longitude, 38° 23′ west. + + ++May 25+ + +Last night we celebrated the Queen’s birthday for Mr. Goggins’ +sake; and the old man had a fête all by himself with a bottle of +Monongahela. The first part of the proceedings consisted in burning +balls of tar-soaked oakum mounted on sticks secured to the weather +rail. Each ball was of the size of man’s head and burned with a +brilliant flame that lit up the whole ship with a red glare, sending +now and then a stream of sparks across the deck, quite alarming till we +remembered that everything in the waist was drenched with spray. + +The second portion of the festivities was more elaborate and was begun +by carrying a barrel of oiled shavings up on the poop. The open end +of the barrel was headed up and a hole a foot square was then cut in +the side. Of course, the captain insisted on performing this piece of +carpentry, and he entertained himself for ten minutes, jabbing away at +the hard wood with a little key-hole saw till he was in quite a frenzy. + +“Now gimme a match and I’ll show you some fireworks,” said he. + +“Hi don’t think it’ll burn, Cap’n Scruggs: the hole ain’t big enough,” +meekly observed the mate. + +“I didn’t ask you whether you thought ’twould burn or not,” responded +the skipper, who had snapped about an inch off the end of his little +saw. “I asked you for a match.” + +Finally the contents of the barrel were ignited, and the skipper, +seizing the chimes at one end, bade the mate do the same at the other; +then to lift it horizontally, swing it to and fro, and when he said +“three,” to let it go over the stern. But the mate got it wrong in some +way, and let go at “two,” and as the captain hung on, there was a good +deal of excitement for a few seconds. The barrel all but hauled him +overboard after breaking off two or three finger nails, banged loudly +against the counter, turned over, and dropped into the water hole-side +down. + +The scene which followed was too harrowing for reproduction, but it was +interrupted by the loud voice of the lookout, “Light right ahead, sir.” +Instantly all was silent. The skipper jumped up on the deck-house, +while the mate ran for the top-gallant-forecastle, whence he shouted +back, “All right, sir, she’s keeping away”; and in a few minutes, a +bark of about seven hundred tons under topsails passed us to leeward, +by the wind, bound north. + +Mr. Goggins entertained us at dinner to-day with a new version of an +old sea-fight. The captain did not come to the table until supper, +owing to his celebrations, which he prolonged far into the night; so, +after the soup had been cleared away at dinner, the mate began, “Did +you ever hear, sir, and ma’am, of the true ’istory about Sims (Semmes) +in the battle of the ‘Kearsarge’ and ‘Halabama’?” “No,” said I; “let us +have it.” + +“’Twon’t take long to tell,” said the mate. “He warn’t in the fight at +all. Where was he? Aboard o’ that English yacht, the ‘Greyhound,’ or +whatever she was, a-lookin’ on! Yes, sir; I was in Liverpool then, and +he come in and went on board the ‘Great Western,’ and her cap’n spit in +his face, and him without the courage to reply.” + +Mr. Goggins had a sousing yesterday which diverted all hands for some +time. He was coming down from forward on the weather side, with that +peculiar confidence assumed by captains and mates when the spray is +flying, as if it were impossible for a drop of water to strike them. +The mate had reached the main hatch, when he heard the swash of an +unusually heavy sea, and casually turned his head in time to see a +perfect storm of spray flying down upon him. It hit him fairly between +the shoulders. He staggered, fluttered about for a moment, and then +flapped heavily and helplessly against the hatch-combing, where he sat +up finally in a foot of water, drenched to the bone. + +Our fine breeze holds, but we are still hard on the wind; course, +southeast by south, true. Latitude, 17° 15′ north; longitude, 36° 50′ +west. + + ++May 26+ + +Last night was a squally one and the sky-sails were furled early in the +evening, hands being stationed at the royal-halliards as well, until +they, too, were stowed at three in the morning. + +We had an accident yesterday afternoon, which, though comparatively +trivial, occasioned some lively work. My wife and I were playing +backgammon at the forward end of the deck-house in the first dog watch, +and everything was running very smoothly, when, with a snap and a +rattle of chain links, the lee maintop-gallant-sheet was carried away. +In a second there was an uproar. Two men jumped with great alacrity +into the weather rigging and in a few minutes were astride of the lee +upper maintop-sail-yard-arm, working like demons, with the long length +of chain sheet waving and slashing among the braces as the ship rolled +in the beam seas. Louis, the Frenchman, swung himself into the rigging +immediately afterward, stationing himself on the royal-yard-arm, +followed by Mr. Rarx and three other men. + +It wasn’t long before the work of repair was progressing +satisfactorily, when the skipper appeared at the cabin door, and, +without preliminary, commenced to shake things up a little. He shook +with such success that in three or four minutes Jimmie Rumps began to +simply hop into the air at intervals, the men were reduced to idiots, +while Mr. Goggins charged about, gulping with excitement; for the +captain would sandwich in such observations as, “I wonder whether +I shipped you for a mate or a farmer”; and requesting him, in soft +but deadly tones, to be “good enough to secure that sheet so it’ll +hold till to-morrow, anyway.” After snarling everything up into a +hundred grannies, Captain Scruggs vanished, and the work proceeded +quietly. The only man who kept his head was the second mate. This +French seaman, Louis Jacquin, is an ideal sailor. He is built like an +ox, short and very broad, with a bull neck thrust well down between +massive shoulders, a back all corrugated with muscle, and, what is +very remarkable in a sailor, large, strong legs. He is as swarthy as +a Spaniard, with blue-black hair and short moustache, and a wide, +powerful jaw, with a pleasant scowl, if such can exist, on his lean, +determined face. He is a man to lean on in an accident. + +[Illustration: The ablest seaman in the ship] + +We were glad to hear that when repairs had been made, the men were +going to mast-head the top-gallant- and royal-yards to the stimulus of +chanties; and sure enough, when the top-gallant-halliards were manned, +the invigorating strains of “A Long Time Ago” broke out in a hoarse but +agreeable barytone. A sailor’s chorus of this sort is a very inspiring +thing. The whole of the crew, eighteen brawny fellows, were stretched +in line, clear across the deck, with David MacFoy, the lusty-voiced +Scot, at the end, to sing the verses; and at the conclusion of each +line a roar would go ringing over the water that must have been heard +behind the horizon, the halliards coming in a full yard at each swing. +The main-royal went aloft to the tune of “A Poor Old Man,” and the boys +seem to find so much pleasure in their chanties and their faces so +shine with merriment that even the sight of them is enough to put a man +in a good humor. + +Over against this pleasant diversion looms up gloomily to-day’s evening +repast. The captain had again imbibed enough to make him quarrelsome, +and during the half-hour that we were at table the mate was so jerked +about at the end of the skipper’s tongue that, objectionable as he +is, we could but pity him, for in five minutes he was in a running +perspiration. The only one who enjoyed the situation was the little +Malay steward, whose face shone with delight as he moved noiselessly +about the table with his gentle “scuse” (excuse), which he utters +whenever he places a plate before us. It might be stated that the mate +and the steward of a ship are at perpetual war; for the former always +has charge of the beef, pork, and flour, which he invariably grudges to +the steward. + +The skipper has surprised us by handing me his sextant now and then, at +about a quarter to noon, with the injunction, “Just look out for her +to-day,” and has then disappeared below, to lie concealed often for +several hours. We made the discovery to-day that he does this to avoid +making himself ridiculous when taking the sun; for naturally a man +requires all his faculties to know exactly when the sun is at meridian. +Latitude, 14° 34′ north; longitude, 35° 12′ west. + + ++May 27+ + +Our good luck still follows us, for the Trades are stronger than ever. +We made two hundred and twenty-two miles in the twenty-four hours, +and for the last ten days our average daily run has been one hundred +and ninety miles. Not very many vessels can show such a record in +the northeast Trades at the end of May, and while two hundred and +twenty-two miles would be merely a fair run with a free wind, it is +extremely good work close-hauled with the leeches of the sky-sails +lifting. It is true that we are still four degrees too far west for +this latitude, but I expect that we’ll fetch by San Roque all right +anyhow. “Where will we lose the Trades?” is in every one’s mouth; +forty eight hours will, no doubt, see the end of them, and then for the +Doldrums and rain. It is very hot now, but the atmosphere is quite dry. + +The captain hasn’t boozed any all day, and at dinner he was in normal +condition, and we had a long talk about the Scotch clippers of forty +and fifty years ago. I asked him which he thought was the fastest +sailing ship ever launched; he was in a good humor and answered +pleasantly, “Well, that’s a big question. Some will tell you that +the ‘Sovereign of the Seas’ was the smartest; others, the ‘Andrew +Jackson’; some, the ‘Flying Cloud,’ which went out to San Francisco in +eighty-five days, twenty-one hours, in 1857. These were all American +ships, as I suppose you know; but the fastest ship, I think, that ever +left the ways was the ‘Lothair,’ of Aberdeen, and I believe she was +faster than that other Scotchman, the ‘Thermopylæ,’ with her sixty days +from London to Melbourne. I’ll tell you what happened to me once: I was +second mate of a Newburyport ship, and we were running our easting down +bound out to Canton, and were somewhere near Tristan d’Acunha, when we +sighted a vessel astern. It was blowing hard from the nor’west, and +the next time I looked, a couple of hours later, there was the ship +close on our quarter, and we doing twelve knots. ‘Holy jiggers,’ says +I to the mate, ‘there’s the “Flyin’ Dutchman.”’ ‘Naw,’ says he, ‘its +the “Thermopylæ.”’ But when she was abeam a little later, she hoisted +her name, the ‘Lothair,’ and its been my opinion ever since that she +was making mighty close to seventeen knots.” Then I asked him what +he thought of the runs of some of our old tea-clippers of from four +hundred to four hundred and forty miles. “Don’t believe it,” was all +he said. It is very possible that the “Lothair” was doing better than +sixteen knots at that time, and one of the most prominent young naval +architects in New York told me once that if he got the order, he could +design a sailing vessel which, under favorable conditions, would log +eighteen knots. + +The best authentic day’s run which I know of was made by the ship in +which we sailed from New York to Calcutta three years ago, on her next +eastern voyage to Anjer. She was running her easting down in ballast +not far from Amsterdam Island, and from noon to noon on one occasion +she sailed three hundred and fifty-one miles, an average of fifteen +miles an hour; I mean knots, of course. Captain Kingdon wrote to me +of this performance from Passaroean, and asserted positively that it +was done by some of the best observations which he ever got in the +Southern Ocean, and that dead reckoning had nothing to do with it. +Indeed, that whole passage was a very quick one, as he went out to Java +in eighty-three days from New York, and broke the record, as far as +he knew, from the longitude of Cape Agulhas to Anjer, having covered +that immense distance in twenty-one days. I told Captain Scruggs about +this, and he doubted it, until he learned the vessel’s name. “Oh,” said +he, “the ‘Mandalore’; well, maybe she did. I saw her in the dry-dock +once, and there never was such a bottom on a merchant ship; ’twas like +a yacht’s.” And, in truth, the handsomest vessel which I ever saw, +taken as a whole, alow and aloft, was the “Mandalore” of London, built +at Stockton-on-Tees. Seen, as we often saw her afterwards, moored in +the Hooghly at Calcutta, among scores of the finest sailing ships in +the world, she was the star of the fleet, the pride and very life of +her captain. Poor, dear old Kingdon! The voyage on which he broke the +record from Good Hope to the Straits of Sunda was the last he ever +made. The “Mandalore” sailed from Banjoewangie, bound to Boston on +the return passage, but called a few weeks later at Table Bay with +the captain sick. He pluckily continued, though against the doctor’s +orders, but was soon afterwards landed at St. Helena ill with cancer, +the vessel proceeding in charge of the mate. Captain Kingdon then went +by steamer to London _via_ Madeira, but was too far advanced in +life for an operation, so he was ordered to Cairo, in the hope that the +dry atmosphere would prolong his life. But his constitution was not +able to hold out much longer, and two months after his arrival in Egypt +died Ray Kingdon, true friend, master mariner, gentleman. Latitude, 11° +25′ north; longitude, 33° 14′ west. + + ++May 28+ + +The wind god is so exceedingly gracious to us at present that I +cannot but think that he is saving himself to swoop down upon us in +fell wrath at the Horn. Here we are bowling merrily along within five +hundred miles of the equator, doing two hundred and twenty miles in the +twenty-four hours, with an unlimited prospect of wind ahead; and if we +could maintain this speed of nine knots, we would cross the line on +Sunday, nineteen days from New York. There are sure to be several days +of calms between the Trades, though, so let us call it twenty-five days. + +During the whole of yesterday the captain kept as sober as a lord +chancellor, until ten o’clock last night, when he took a drink, which +set him off again. He was very talkative when we left the deck at +10.30, and the last thing that I remember before dropping off to sleep +was, “You’ll have an easier time of it if you break a few of their +---- ---- heads.” This to the second mate after he had had two more +drinks. We knew by this he was in for another round of festivities, and +my wife said this morning that he was charging around the cabin all +night, snoring and groaning, falling over camp-chairs and door-sills. +I have known him to sink into a stupor on the cabin sofa, shoot off +with a whoop in a lurch of the ship, wallow on the floor till he struck +the table-legs, and then peacefully continue his slumbers in that +attitude. He doesn’t like my mixing with the men so much, especially +when pumping-ship; he is very suspicious, and said last evening that +he shouldn’t think that I’d want to come into contact with such men, +forgetting how much more interesting they are than he is. + +If sailors can be induced to talk, they are the most entertaining +people as a class which it is possible to find. But it is very hard +for a stranger to break the ice with them; and if the stranger should +be a gentleman it makes it twice as hard, for they will always be +extremely reserved in his presence. The only way to do if you want +them to talk freely among themselves (which is much the most amusing) +is to ask them questions and try to start conversations with them at +every opportunity; generally, at the end of a week, they will see that +you really like to converse with them, the ice will gradually melt, +and from that time forward, if you should ever feel gloomy and sulky, +go down on the main-deck and stand by the galley during the second +dog-watch, and listen to the witty passes at each other; in fifteen +minutes you will be shaking with laughter, for theirs is real humor. + +At the pumps this evening I asked the Frenchman several questions, and +found him not at all averse to talking, though his English is very +bad. In speaking of the Southern Ocean, he said that his preference +lay in favor of the Horn voyages, saying that the Good Hope seas were +too short, meaning that in the event of a very heavy sea it is best +to have as long a one as possible. Probably he was thinking of the +Agulhas Bank, where there is at times possibly the most dangerous sea +in the world,--a Bay of Fundy sea multiplied by ten. Across this bank, +in a westerly direction, flows a swift current that issues from the +Mozambique Channel, called now the Agulhas Current, and this, meeting +the westerly gales, produces enormous, hollow seas, from which no +vessel, however buoyant, can keep free. + +What a splendid fellow this Gaul is! What a back and legs! and his +wrists are as large as some men’s ankles. He has a really engaging +smile, too, in spite of his bulldog jaws and shaggy brows. Opposite to +me to-day pumped Jimmie Rumps. Curiously enough, he is the only sailor +whom I have ever heard swear in joking among themselves, however they +may talk alone in the forecastle, and he does so because he thinks +that it is big. “There’s a fellow I’d like to see on the pumps,” he +remarked, quite an ugly look coming into his face; and, glancing +astern, I saw the skipper descending the weather-poop ladder. Though +many of the men were evidently of this opinion, not a word was said +by any of them; for might I not repeat their sentiments aft in the +cabin for aught that they knew? Therefore the observation was received +with scowls and a dead silence, which continued until Rumps again +broke in with, “Last voyage I was in the American ship ‘Ivanhoe,’ and +I was nearly starved to death!” “Eh?” said Louis, sharply. “I said +I was starved in the ‘Ivanhoe,’” repeated Jimmie. “Oh,” replied the +Frenchman; “I t’ought you meant zees sheep; you’ll find no bettair food +anywhere zan here.” It is not often that a sailor will acknowledge +this, and it speaks very well for Louis. + +“Say,” Jimmie went on, “I’ve had enough of the sea, and if I can, I’m +going home to Brooklyn on eight wheels [_i.e._, railway car]; and +lemme give you a tip on San Francisco; don’t you miss the baths, though +it’ll cost you ten cents, and a quarter for a fresh-water swim. And, +say, you go over and see Oakland; but I dunno if they’ve got the fare +down to five yet.” + +It is rather surprising that Captain Scruggs doesn’t take an interest +in keeping track of his various voyages, plotted off on the different +charts, as Captain Kingdon did. The latter used some which had sixteen +voyages pricked off on them as plain as ink could make it, forming a +very useful aid for future work, as he could select the average from +them all, for each voyage as it progressed. Our skipper, however, takes +no such pains, and so far hasn’t even looked at an ordinary chart. +To-day my wife asked him to show her where we were, at noon, and he +hauled out from under the sofa an old, ragged, hydrographic wind-chart, +and after much stertorous breathing he managed to stab the position +on the paper with the dividers, being so palsied from last night’s +potations that he had to steady one hand with the other before he could +hit the chart within several degrees of where we were. Latitude, 8° 24′ +north; longitude, 31° 40′ west. + + ++May 29+ + +The end of the Trades is at hand. After blowing us through nearly +twenty-five degrees of latitude, the wind began to let go yesterday +afternoon and to simultaneously haul to the southward, while an immense +pall of blue-black cloud rose slowly out of the southwest and solemnly +spread itself over the clear sky, with an indication of thunder-squalls +in the “white heads” which crowned its summit. Sure enough, in the +middle watch there was some mild thunder and lightning, but hardly any +rain. However, a drizzle started later on, and as the morning was a +soft one and the atmosphere almost as heavy and hot as the steam from a +kettle,--a typical tropical morning,--the men were turned to scrubbing +the paint-work generally. It was a very long, tedious job, for every +particle of white paint had been transformed into a dirty drab in the +New York docks. I never saw such a change in a vessel as the men, +starting at the taffrail, worked their way forward--poop, bulwarks, +boats, skids, everything putting off the grimy look, and assuming in +its stead a glossy whiteness which almost hurt the eye. + +It is strange that we have no head-pump here. On the “Mandalore” there +was a very powerful one, worked by four men, and a line of two-inch +hose that reached to the after hatch. Our method of washing down the +decks, though, is as primitive as irrigation in India, for all the +water must be hoisted over the side in a canvas bucket and dumped into +a cask, whence it is taken out as wanted. + +Speaking of the “Mandalore” reminds me of a gruesome tale which MacFoy, +the bosun, told me last evening. So broad is his brogue that it was +rather hard to understand him, but I gathered the following: One +day, about nine years ago, there started from Hamburg, bound to San +Francisco, the big Liverpool ship “Falls of Ayr.” The weather growing +very bad in the Channel, though, she up helm and ran back for the +Downs, to anchor till the gale should break. Shortly before she sailed +the “Mandalore” left Hull, also bound around the Horn to San Diego, on +what MacFoy said was her maiden voyage. After getting well out into +the Channel, though, and finding it as thick as pea-soup, she, too, +ran back for the Downs, and before anybody knew what was happening, +with a fearful crash she hit the “Falls of Ayr” head on, well aft on +the quarter, dividing her nearly in two and smashing her boats, which +she carried aft, Liverpool fashion. Very curiously, the “Ayr” had no +after companion-way, entrance to the main cabin being effected solely +by means of the doors on the main-deck. These, being of iron, crumpled +like paper under the impact of collision, and then jammed, so that +in the hurry and confusion they baffled all attempts at opening, and +before anything could be done the ship foundered, carrying down with +her every soul aft,--captain, two mates, steward, and cook, caught +like flies in a trap. Nor was this all. Three boats had been broken +into match-wood, leaving but one unharmed, in which only a handful of +the men and two apprentices escaped. “And look again, sir,” continued +David, “she’s the unluckiest ship that ever left a yard. Two years +later she ran down a large Belfast ship off Pernambuco, one of the Star +Line,--I think ’twas the ‘Star of Greece,’--though both ships finally +made Buenos Ayres for repairs.” + +And this was the dear old “Mandalore” which carried us so happily +across thirteen thousand miles of ocean only a short time ago! We had +absolutely no suspicion of those accidents before, and I asked the +bosun if he couldn’t be mistaken, but he answered, “I never forget a +ship, sir; this one I mean is a London ship built at Stockton nine +years ago.” That settled it; but how strange that we should never have +heard of either case! + +There are two boxes of Sicilian oranges on board which are holding out +remarkably well; for though they are getting a little dry, not one has +so far spoiled. We also have good cool water to drink yet; for in spite +of the great heat of the last two days, it has not penetrated the big +galvanized iron tanks below. Indeed, the water is so much cooler than +the air that a blur forms on the outside of a tumbler. But this will +soon change, and we will have drinking-water at a temperature of ninety +degrees for a fortnight. Latitude, 6° 5′ north; longitude, 30° 30′ +west. + + ++May 30+ + +This afternoon was very hot and calm, and we had the first hard rain +of the voyage. As we had had no wind at all previous to this shower, +the courses had been hauled up to prevent chafing; but some of the +buntlines and clew-lines had been let go when the rain came, although +as there was not much wind in the squall, the men were allowed to +drop braces and everything else and run for tubs and buckets to be +filled with fresh water, so that for the next thirty minutes the decks +presented a remarkable sight. The head-yards were braced up, while +the main- and after-yards were still squared, with the starboard clew +of the foresail, both clews of the mainsail, and the port-clew of the +cross-jack hauled up, while the decks were covered with a wonderful +snarl of ropes. However, we filled every bucket, tub, and cask on +board, while the men ran for their soiled clothes and spread them +out all over the forward deck to soften in the warm rain, the mate +producing three pairs of old trousers which he carefully deposited +on the after-hatch. Odd notion, this washing of ordinary clothes; I +had never heard of such a thing. The rain lasted for an hour, and the +captain had the bathtub filled and I had a delightful fresh-water +bath, the temperature of the rain being 79°. Only those who have been +compelled to bathe for weeks in brine can appreciate the luxury of +fresh water. + +Our calm reminded the mate at dinner of a curious circumstance which +happened once in the Pacific. Quite a fleet of ships started out +together from San Francisco bound around the Horn; and, keeping well +together, they all fell into a calm streak just north of the line which +lasted for twelve days. During this time several ships passed this +fleet about fifty miles to the westward of them (among which was the +“Wandering Jew,” an American ship, since burned) with half a gale of +wind! This story seems to be quite true, as the “Jew’s” log-book for +that day showed that she was a degree west of the becalmed vessels, and +mentioned that they stowed the fore and mizzentop-gallant sails. A fact +of this sort shows what different weather conditions may exist at a +distance of less than one hundred miles. + +We witnessed a punishment this afternoon which I thought was never +resorted to except in the navy; and, even there, the construction of +a modern war-ship necessarily precludes it. We were sitting at the +break of the poop, when we saw a man coming down from aloft in a hurry, +as though he were especially anxious to reach the deck; when, to our +surprise, no sooner had he done so than MacFoy gruffly said to him, +“Back you go; and this time to the sky-sail-yard; d’ye hear?” + +So up he went again (it was Louis Eckers, the youngest and dullest +seaman in the ship) till he reached the main-royal, when of course he +had to “shin” up to the sky-sail-yard, as there are never any ratlines +above the royals. Presently, though, he stood upon the yard, one +hundred and eighty feet above the water, grasping the slender sky-sail +pole with one arm, and surveying the deck quite comfortably. When he +had been there about half an hour, the bosun roared out “Come down”; +and it was not till then that we realized that he had been mast-headed +for bad conduct. It seems incredible that a punishment so humane should +be resorted to on a Yankee ship. + +The eating on board, aft at any rate, is still extremely good, +particularly the coffee, which is put up in convenient packages for +sea use and labelled “Best Maracaibo”; thus there is no deception, the +greater part of “Mocha” having its origin in Central or South America. +Every day at meals the mate seems to grow more hideous and grotesque, +and he is the only man whom I ever saw to whom the latter adjective +could be applied. His nose, which is enormous, is canted far over to +the right; one nostril is the size of a slate-pencil, while the other +would fit a small gas-pipe, and his dense, kinky moustache becomes +at meals the lurking place of various liquids and solids; while ears +like water-lilies expand from his head like those of a bat. His table +manners are actually shocking, though in some ways he is perhaps not +much worse than the skipper, who contrives to decorate the lapels of +his coat with a spray of soup at each dinner. Some men embellish the +region of their waist-bands with various fluids, but Captain Scruggs is +dexterous enough to decorate his entire front with such things. + +Mr. Goggins has a stock phrase which is simply too absurd, when he +declines anything further at table. Suppose the captain to say, “Have +some more potatoes, sir?” he will reply, closing one eye and leering +at the dish with the other, “No-o-o, sir, I thank you, sir; I’ve ’ad +sufficient, sir, I thank you, sir.” This answer is invariable, and +it is never abbreviated or curtailed in any way. He has also of late +acquired the extremely objectionable habit of coming to the table with +bare feet, which I am going to ask the skipper if he cannot prevent. +Latitude, 5° 16′ north; longitude, 30° 5′ west. + + ++May 31+ + +Our progress for this twenty-four hours was not such as would delight +the heart of a steam-yachtsman, for our difference of latitude was +precisely nothing, and we made twenty-five miles of westing, which +would indicate a current. The heat, of course, is great, and also the +oppressiveness, everything being indescribably sticky and soft. The +temperature of the sea has risen to correspond with that of the air, +both standing at about eighty-four degrees; severe rain-squalls with +little or no wind necessitate oil-skins on deck, for if your clothes +get wet they will be hours drying in this weather; indeed, they will +not dry at all, unless you put them on, when the heat of the body +evaporates the moisture. As we have been several days now in very hot +weather, we have had plenty of opportunity of comparing the cabins of +a wooden and an iron ship in the tropics. As might have been expected, +that of the “Higgins” is cooler than that of the iron “Mandalore”; +but the difference is surprisingly little, not more than two or +three degrees. The principal disparity we notice at night, as the +“Mandalore’s” top-sides used to retain the heat of the sun for so long +a period that it was frequently two o’clock in the morning before the +temperature fell perceptibly. The thermometer now in our room stands at +about 85° day and night as against 87° and 88° in the other ship. + +Yesterday we caught a dolphin. It was a true dolphin, _delphinus +delphis_, a mammal, the bottle-nose of sailors; seafaring people +giving the name to a small beautifully-colored fish, _coryphœna +hippuris_, which isn’t a dolphin at all. + +Scores of the big, graceful creatures had been disporting themselves +around the ship for several hours, as many as a dozen sometimes +simultaneously breaking the water in a space which apparently could +have been covered with a table-cloth. By and by they aroused the +blood-loving propensities of the mate, who forthwith rigged his harpoon +and stationed himself on the bowsprit-shrouds to watch for his prey. +Presently a dolphin shot under the martingale-boom, when zip, the heavy +iron flew through the air and passed completely through the unhappy +creature, whose blood instantly transformed the lovely blue of the sea +to a rich crimson. Here Mr. Goggins showed indications of insanity +and bawled for the watch, who came running up on the forecastle-head +with beaming faces. A dozen hands seized the harpoon-line, and a few +hearty pulls landed the dolphin alongside the starboard anchor amid +the wildest acclamations from the men. As he was to furnish fresh +food for them for several days, however, their joy was natural, and +he was dragged down on the main deck, cleaned, and skinned, which +latter process was accomplished by slitting the hide into longitudinal +sections, and then, starting each strip, three hands would take a +strong hold and with a hard wrench the strip or ribbon would be ripped +off with a noise like the tearing of heavy silk; one of the men, the +facetious Charley Neilsen, suggesting the propriety of starting a +chanty. After this had been accomplished, the carcass was suspended +from the mainstay, bearing a singular resemblance to a hind-quarter of +beef. + +This morning we had dolphin liver for breakfast, which could scarcely +have been detected from calf’s liver, and this, with some new-laid eggs +and salt mackerel, afforded us much the same breakfast which we would +have had ashore. “And the flesh you won’t know from beef; eh, cap’n?” +said Mr. Goggins. But we hardly believed this and our distrust was +justified when a strange dish was placed before the skipper at dinner. +“What on earth is that?” I asked. + +“Oh, this is a dolphin stew,” quoth Captain Scruggs, with much +satisfaction, “and that’s just pork fat on top to flavor it.” + +Whatever it was, the thing was in a deep yellow dish and looked like +a wretched meat pie, the slabs of pork taking the place of crust. But +yet stranger things were to be disclosed; for when the captain inserted +a spoon and sculled around in the recesses of the cavernous redoubt, +he brought to light and placed upon our plates irregular lumps of what +seemed to be coke, while some of the fragments were of that dead black +that pitch assumes, smooth in places, and in others sharp and ragged. I +can assure the reader that a dolphin ragout is a strange thing. + +It will no doubt surprise some people to know that the largest +steamship line in the world is the Hamburg-American Company. That is, +its vessels, which number one hundred and twenty-four, aggregate the +greatest number of tons. The new freight steamers “Pennsylvania” and +“Pretoria” of this line are mammoth vessels, and two more of the same +class are now building by the Vulcan Works at Stettin. Their gross +tonnage is about twelve thousand five hundred, with a displacement of +twenty-three thousand tons, and a carrying capacity of twenty thousand +tons. It is marvellous that a vessel should be able to carry, safely, +twenty-twenty-thirds of her own weight. The new White Star freighter +“Cymric” slightly exceeds these vessels in carrying capacity, and it +requires six hundred and twenty-five carloads of freight to fill her +enormous hull. + +Below will be found a list of the five largest steamship lines, with +the aggregate tonnage of each. + + Tons + + Hamburg American 341,000 + British India 295,000 + North German Lloyd 266,000 + Peninsular and Oriental 251,000 + Messageries Maritimes 279,000 + +The Cunard Line is simply swallowed up in these figures, and even the +White Star Line, with all its freighters, falls below them; while +the Japanese Nippon Yusen Kabushiki, with one hundred and sixty-two +thousand tons, exceeds the Cunard, which the average citizen would +perhaps place first on the list. Latitude 5° 16′ north; longitude, 30° +30′ west. + + ++June 1+ + +Three weeks at sea this day, and we are involved in the vortex, so to +speak, of the Doldrums, with all which the name implies: intense heat, +sultry, humid atmosphere, a baking sun which glares down between heavy +showers and an almost total absence of wind. We were congratulating +ourselves last night, for at 8.30 we took a northeasterly wind, which +sent us along at seven knots through a sea spangled with phosphoric +jewels and leaving a wake of silvery light astern, like the trail of a +meteor. + + “About, about, in reel and route, + The death-fires danced at night.” + +But on issuing from the companion-way this morning, lo! a great calm +was lying upon the waters; while the sun, like a globe of incandescent +gold, sent down terrible rays of heat, trebly intensified by the brassy +glare from the ocean. Perspiration dripped from the faces of the +weather-hardened seamen upon the least exertion, the pigs breathed in +short gasps and the poultry stalked about the deck with open bills. + +[Illustration: The companion-way] + + “Down dropt the breeze, the sails dropt down, + ’Twas sad as sad could be, + And we did speak only to break + The silence of the sea. + + “All in a hot and copper sky + The bloody sun at noon + Right up above the masts did stand, + No bigger than the moon.” + +A typical day of the low latitudes this. To me there is ever something +wonderfully impressive in an absolute calm, when no breath of wind +tarnishes the surface, and the only evidence that the ship is not +resting upon a plane of glass is to be found in an occasional slow, +deep surge, hardly ever absent when in the profound depths of the ocean. + +All around the northern and eastern horizon hung superb, dense masses +of violet cloud, descending at intervals in steaming showers, while +broad on the port bow lay becalmed a large square rigger, hull down, +but lifting at times on the swell till we could see her courses +hanging in the buntlines in easy, graceful curves. Nearer and nearer, +by imperceptible degrees, she approached, till at eleven o’clock she +lay not more than three miles distant,--a magnificent four-masted +bark, bearing the stamp of the Clyde upon her powerful iron hull, and +presenting, with her double top-gallant-yards and splendid sheer, a +perfect illustration of the modern sailing ship, of the largest and +finest class. How beautiful and stately and proud she looked as she +floated along, apparently conscious that she was homeward bound, and +fully aware that she was one of the “swift shuttles of an empire’s +loom” which Kipling mentions in those fine verses “The Coastwise Lights +of England!” + +“I’ll bet there’s nothin’ ter eat aboard there but rice, hard bread, +and water,” said a croaking voice at my elbow, and the greasy +countenance of the grizzly old mate was thrust suddenly into the +foreground, totally destroying the beauty of the scene. Mr. Goggins +(always Mr.) never loses a chance to blackguard his native country, +which shows better than anything else what sort of creature he is. We +made our number to the ship, to which she replied with her own name, +but which we unfortunately could not make out, though, owing to the +position of our flags, she may have been able to do so. + +It is pleasant to study a great vessel like this, and to wonder how +old she is and what great gales she must have witnessed in her career, +walking up and down the world; now perhaps carrying five thousand +tons of grain from California to the starving multitudes in India; now +beating her way round tempestuous Agulhas, full to the hatches with tea +and silk; now struggling against the thunderous southwesterly monsoon +in the Bay of Bengal, homeward bound from Calcutta with twenty thousand +bales of flossy jute in her great body. God speed the gallant ship! +Latitude, 4° 24′ north; longitude, 29° 35′ west. + + ++June 2+ + +This afternoon was a perfect scorcher, even worse than yesterday, and +the sun glittered down from a sky absolutely cloudless. Half a dozen +albacores gambolled lazily around the ship all day, sometimes casting +themselves several feet out of the water and then falling back with +such a splitting crack that it was marvellous how their skins withstood +it; and as these fish usually weigh about two hundred pounds and are +some five or six feet in length, they made quite a fascinating display. + +Last night we had what will probably be our last look at the pole-star +for a couple of months. The sky was very clear then in the north, +showing Polaris just above the horizon; theoretically, the altitude of +this star is the approximate latitude in, and it ought to be visible +at, the equator; but owing to vapors, etc., the polar star is generally +not visible south of 5° north. + +My wife is remarkably well in all this heat, a fact well illustrated +by her hearty appetite at meals, considering that what we eat for +dinner is usually supposed to be the accompaniments of cold weather. +Our noon repast to-day, as an example, comprised a liberal portion of +dense, steaming pea soup, hot Boston baked beans, and brown bread, +followed, topped off with, oh, heavens! smoking plum pudding and Edam +cheese in lumps as large as walnuts! Most people would consider this +a throttling diet on the equator, and so it is, more or less; but +our appetites are so fine that just now we don’t mind such a little +inconvenience as Boston beans bubbling in pork fat. + +At supper the heat was worse than ever and we were hurrying to get on +deck, when my wife called attention to the strange, yellow tinge of a +cloud-bank right ahead, which we could see through the cabin door. + +“Oh, it’s nothing at all,” said the skipper; but, as if to nail his +words, there came a blast of cold wind, which heeled the ship over to +the scuppers and sent the captain and mate flying on deck. We followed +instantly, and beheld a thrilling sight. Ahead, from southwest to +east, the sky was covered with thick, windy-looking, saffron clouds, +rushing rapidly toward us; while the sea, as black as beneath a summer +thunder-squall, was whipped into angry, spitting white-caps, through +which we were just beginning to force our way. In the northwest, over +against this gloomy scene of dun vapor and dark, foam-flecked water, +gleamed the sun, just setting in golden splendor, encircled with +wonderful clouds of the most delicate blues and grays. + +Meanwhile, the ship was in the wildest uproar which we had seen yet. +The newly washed clothes had been hung in lines across the poop, and +they were thrashing about like tattered flags; while ever and anon +detached clothespins whistled by, necessitating very lively dodging. On +the main-deck sixteen sailors were doing absolutely nothing but casting +off the wrong braces; while ropes were flying, sails were slatting and +booming, the bosuns were jumping about sulphurous with profanity, and +Mr. Goggins in five minutes had so far lost command of himself as to +lean helplessly against a capstan, quite speechless. Captain Scruggs +stood at the weather poop-ladder shouting commands, to which no one +paid any attention, such as, “Brace up those head-yards there; what’s +the matter with you, Mr. What’s-your-name? Come out o’ that trance and +git a watch-tackle on the foresheet. Hurry up that handy-billy now; +or maybe you want me to show you what a handy-billy is.” (This with +blighting sarcasm.) “Bosun, get that jib-topsail in!” The trumpeting +of a rogue elephant couldn’t have been worse than the roar in which +these orders were given, and the relief was infinite when objects began +to straighten themselves out and the skipper went below. At seven +o’clock we were doing eight knots, steering southwest by the wind. “The +southeast Trades,” said the captain, positively; “they always come in +a squall like that.” But, so far from this being the truth, the wind +had let go entirely at eleven, and we were once more lying idly on a +motionless sea. Latitude, 3° 50′ north; longitude, 29° 3′ west. + + ++June 3+ + +Even Captain Scruggs’s proverbial good luck seems to have vanished, +for we have not made more than fifty miles per diem for several days, +usually drifting about all over the ocean without steerage-way, until +a squall comes along every two hours or so and sends us ahead four +or five miles. The skipper lately has kept his temper well for so +intolerant a man, but it is now oozing rapidly away, and he rolls out a +reverberating oath at the men every few minutes, at whom he rages for +apparently nothing. He seems to think that the most laborious tasks +ought to be accomplished instantaneously, and he stuns Jimmie Rumps +now and then with something like, “I’ll learn yer to obey with the end +of a rope, for yer can’t pull any more than somebody’s d---- cow”; and +constantly asks him, “Ain’t yer got a mouth on yer to answer with?” + +I had a talk with Coleman the other day. This man is the graven image +of the conventional Mephistopheles, and arrived, together with Olsen, +at New York, on the American ship “S. P. Hitchcock” a fortnight before +we sailed, ninety-two days from Honolulu. Coleman couldn’t say enough +in favor of Captain Gates (indeed, every one speaks well of him), +adding, “She’s a bloody sight different from this packet.” In saying +which he alluded to Captain Scruggs’s abusive manner when talking +to the men, which is entirely unnecessary and doesn’t do any good. +Sailors, of course, can’t bear this when they are doing their best, and +will make it just as hard as they can for a captain in return. In the +face of several recent outrageous pieces of cruelty on our ships, I do +not think that our skipper will personally lay hands on the men. Still, +you cannot tell to what length he will go when we have been together +three or four months. + +The mate approached us last evening and gave it as his opinion that +we’d never see the big steel Bath ship “Dirigo” again. “Why not?” said +I; “she had not been more than one hundred and sixty days at sea when +we sailed.” + +“I know; that’s all right,” he answered; “but she was spoken off the +Horn by the Briddish ship ‘Howth,’ that arrived a month before we +left. Oh, you’ll never see _her_ again.” That’s the way with this +individual,--he always thinks that something is going to happen. Then +he suddenly asked,-- + +“Do you know wot Dirigo means?” + +I told him that I did know what it meant,--“I direct.” + +“Naw,” he replied; “hit’s the motto of the State of Maine, and means +‘go ahead’”; and when I tried to tell him that that was a very free +translation of it, he said, “I don’t care for no translation; in the +Greek language it means ‘go ahead.’” Such incontrovertible evidence +was, of course, indisputable. + +Mr. Rarx, the second mate, is of an altogether different type from Mr. +Goggins. He has more natural intelligence, is very neat and clean, and +is, besides, a far better seaman, and handles the men in such a way +as to get twice as much work accomplished in a watch as the mate. But +I am inclined to think that he has a very bad temper, from the motion +he made with a fid the other day at two of the sailors who had made a +mistake with a splice; and when he told me about an easy voyage which +he had just made in the “William H. Smith,” and added, “I didn’t have +to speak cross to the men once from Singapore to New York,” he looked +at me very hard, and it seemed as though he were “sounding” me, to see +whether I would believe improbable yarns. Still, I may be doing him +injustice. + +Perhaps the most agreeable man in the ship is David MacFoy, and we +talked together for half an hour yesterday at about six o’clock. “This +is a tedious place, mister,” said he; “we were three weeks here in the +Doldrums a couple of months ago in the ‘P. N. Blanchard,’ from Manila +to Boston. We’ll be awhile here now if signs count; and what’s that +we’ve got ahead of us?--the Horn in mid-winter! Oh dear, dear! The +last time I went round to the westward was in the ‘Tam o’ Shanter,’ a +couple of years ago now, and we were forty-nine days off Cape Horn, +and that much snow that in half an hour the lee decks would be full +o’ drift. But d’ye know, I’d rather double the Horn to the west’ard +than run the eastin’ down goin’ out to China and Australia. If yer do +get heavier sou’west gales there, you’re hove to comfortable-like; but +runnin’ to the east’ard, it’s a terrible thing to have them greyhounds +a-chasin’ yer. On the last passage out to Wellington two hands were +washed overboard out o’ the waist, another was washed away from the +wheel off the poop, and a fourth poor fellow fell from the upper +mizzen-top-sail-yard, and only lived ten minutes. Oh! that other’s +a crool cape, sir. No, I’m not married; there’s too many grog-shops +around. Now, look: when I landed in Boston a few weeks ago from the +‘Blanchard’ I had a hundred and seventy-six dollars comin’ to me. That +was on a Friday. The next Monday I landed in New York with fifty cents, +and signed here next day; but that was pretty quick work.” + +This, and much more, did the big, handsome Scot reveal to me, in +the pleasant accents of his native land, and with that knack of +story-telling which so many ship-masters imagine that they possess, +to the chagrin and distraction of their friends. I expect many more +agreeable half-hours with this interesting fellow, for he instils much +individuality into his tales. Nor will I ever forget him as he leaned +against the pin-rail in the dusk this evening, his clean checked jumper +lying open across his brown chest, as round as a barrel, and his head +shaded by a wide-brimmed felt hat. He is an ideal bosun. + +Being now in one of the great ocean cross-roads, we are constantly +sighting vessels, both steamers and wind-jammers, bound north and +south, the steamers being those on the voyage to and from the river +Plate and Brazil to the United States and Europe. Yesterday we sighted +five vessels, but none near enough to speak. Latitude, 3° 40′ north; +longitude, 27° 50′ west. + + ++June 4+ + +Our calm hot weather continues with no indications of a break, and +the sun is continuously obscured by heavy, cumulus clouds, though +the heat is scarcely so overpowering as it was a day or two ago. But +the humidity is suffocating, and as we have no sun, rugs, towels, +and everything else feel almost wet to the touch. Last evening we +had a sharp squall at 6.30, for which we lowered the sky-sails and +luffed smartly at the same time. Very heavy rain fell too, making the +fourteenth hard shower of the day. In the middle watch last night, the +mate said that the heaviest rain fell which he had ever seen, together +with a single dazzling lightning-flash and a simultaneous crash of +thunder. + +In our lives we have witnessed many scenes of great tumult, but never +have I seen any to compare with that on board this ship this afternoon +at four o’clock. Captain Scruggs had been growling and yapping around +the main-deck all day, cursing everything, and particularly the light +air which came fanning along, whenever it fanned at all, straight out +of the south. Thus far we had not once tacked ship, though several +times the wind had shifted so as to bring it on the other side. We were +crawling along then this afternoon toward the east when eight bells +went and both watches came on deck; while in another minute, without +previous warning, the skipper yapped out, “All hands ’bout ship.” +Paint-brushes and serving-mallets were dropped and tar-pots stowed +away, while every one hastened to obey the summons. + +Now, there is always more or less confusion the first time that a +square-rigger tacks or wears on a voyage, though if everybody keeps his +head there ought not to be so very much; and if our skipper had only +let Mr. Goggins attend to the small details there wouldn’t have been +a tenth of the disorder here. From the moment that the helm was put +down, however, until we filled away on the other leg the ship was like +a mad-house at recess. I don’t believe that there ever was heard on a +vessel’s deck such yelling, or howling, which is a more comprehensive +word. Nearly every order given by either mate the captain at once +countermanded, sometimes without knowing it, often on purpose. The +main-deck was full of capstan-bars, lead blocks and braces, which +had been cast off when the order came to ’bout ship; and over and +among these encumbrances eighteen men wrangled, stamped, and swore to +an accompaniment of chattering blocks and thrashing canvas, as the +ship came up to the wind, the mates cuffing and thumping the awkward +ones with unflagging diligence, Mr. Goggins lumbering heavily aft to +administer a painful booting to that hapless creature, Neils Brün, who +has been in almost continuous trouble since the mate nearly pulled his +ear off, a fortnight ago. + +And where was the master of the ship all this time? Behold him at the +break of the poop raging like the heathen, while at times he shook both +fists together above his head and swore like a pirate, as his voice +went booming and crashing above the noise of battle. But the full glory +of the scene was reached when, a few moments after he had roared out +“Maintop-sail, haul!” the main-brace jammed in the brace-block and +wouldn’t render. His passion was almost fearful as he called upon the +blank-blank-blankety who fouled the brace to show himself; while he +jumped off the poop and raged away, tearing the braces apart as though +he were wringing some one’s neck. Even the second mate lost his head +once as the old man shouted to his bosun, “I told yer to let go that +t’gallant-brace, didn’t I? Do yer want me to show yer how it’s done? I +will; but I’ll wipe the deck with yer first. Where are yer steerin’ the +ship to, yer at the wheel? Maybe yer’d like to have her aback?” + +Now, if we had never been to sea before, we might have supposed that +this was the necessary and proper manner of putting a ship about; but +as we had seen the “Mandalore” under similar conditions several times, +where there was almost perfect order during such evolutions, this scene +was positively astounding, and disgusted us with Captain Scruggs. He is +manifestly a fine seaman (American ship-masters are invariably that), +but he loses command of himself and every one else as soon as there is +anything to be done. + +Although the American sailing ships have decreased in numbers amazingly +in the last twenty-five years, there being in 1871 twenty-four hundred +and sixty-six square-rigged vessels under the flag, as against four +hundred and fifty-six at the present time, there seems to be good +reason to think that an increase in this branch of ship-building is +about to commence. Arthur Sewall, the great Bath ship-owner, has a +large three-thousand-ton vessel completed and the keel of another one +laid down, both of steel, while it is not improbable that he will build +a fleet of such sailing ships. Think of our immense trade to the East +fifty years since, and then ponder on the fact that not long ago the +only vessel which entered the port of Calcutta flying the American +flag for a period of four years was a British-built steam-yacht! That +sailing vessels in general are not passing away as rapidly as people +suppose, however, was shown by a circumstance that occurred about +six months ago, when the freight-steamer “Massachusetts” arrived one +day at New York from London and reported that in twelve hours she +passed fifty-four sailing vessels of various rigs, all close-hauled on +the starboard tack! Her approximate position then was latitude 48°, +longitude 27°. + +For several days the men have been setting up the rigging fore and aft, +and they are now finishing the mizzen-top-gallant, royal and sky-sail +backstays. It was a tedious job, but intensely interesting to watch, +and I had never seen it done before on a square-rigger, as the other +ship’s rigging was set up with turnbuckles. Latitude, 3° 22′ north; +longitude, 27° 50′ west. + + ++June 5+ + +We think that we have taken the southeast Trades, though the wind +as yet is nothing to the eastward of south. Last evening the dense +rain-clouds and vapory masses of the Doldrums gave way to a clear sky +dotted with trade clouds, and a lovely night followed, the moon in the +first quarter being visible for the first time in many days. We had +also a magnificent view of the southern heavens, with the golden Cross +now well up, wheeling slowly through the sky, the finest constellation +in the south. Immediately beneath, though a little to the left of, the +Cross a strange thing is to be observed in the shape of what seems to +be a large pear-shaped blot in the surrounding stars, bearing a close +resemblance to a dark cloud, about the same size as the Cross itself. +Within this space, which sailors call the Black Cloud, not a single +star can be observed with the naked eye, though the sky round about the +Cross in every other direction is thick with stars of the third and +fourth magnitude. + +At eight o’clock this evening we tacked ship for the third or fourth +time to-day, and by reason of so much practice this herculean task +was accomplished with a little less noise than before. Still, the +disturbance was very great, with a prodigious amount of shouting and +bad language from the skipper, which once more rose to a climax when +one of the fore buntlines caught on something, just after he had sung +out “Let go and haul.” Captain Scruggs, who was standing at the extreme +forward end of the cabin-house, here executed a few fantastic steps +to relieve his mind, and being clearly outlined in the moonlight, +he made a very idiotic appearance. The manœuvre of tacking on this +occasion, by the way, was a very impressive one, the white moon-beams +transforming the dull gray canvas into cloths of satiny sheen as the +great yards revolved to maintop-sail haul. + +It must be said that the captain was justified to-day in kicking at the +weather. The breeze was of the very faintest sort, and as often as we +tacked ship the wind actually seemed to jump around and head us off, so +that, after we were once more braced up on the port tack this evening +and the wind shifted back and into the south, heading us off to nearly +west, we really began to pity the skipper. + +The phosphoric display here is the most beautiful which we have ever +seen. Our wake every night is a swirling, gyrating, writhing path of +liquid fire, in which glitter thousands of apparently incandescent +globes as large as billiard-balls, with now and then a suggestion of +fiery serpents twisting and wriggling through the glowing mass. + + “Beyond the shadow of the ship + I watched the water-snakes; + They moved in tracks of shining white, + And when they reared, the elfish light + Fell off in hoary flakes. + + “Within the shadow of the ship + I watched their rich attire; + Blue, glossy green, and velvet black, + They coiled and swam; and every track + Was a flash of golden fire.” + +How singularly devoid some men are of decent feelings! I talked last +evening at the pumps with Murphy (he whose nose was pulled) and Rumps. +The latter was boasting as to how long he could stay drunk without +seeing startling visions, and rejoiced in saying that he had been +in the lock-up of more than one city in the United States. Murphy, +however, bowled him completely over by remarking quite calmly, “I been +in the jail of every large seaport in the world.” + +Though the temperature is just as high, 84° at noon on deck, the +humidity has almost disappeared and the weather seems clear and +settled. Latitude, 2° 49′ north; longitude, 27° west. + + ++June 6+ + +Indications seem to point with certainty to our having taken the +southeast Trades, for a strong breeze sprang up at six this morning, +descending upon us in a squall. We trembled lest it should prove naught +but a puff; but we had the satisfaction of seeing it steadily increase, +so that four hours later we had logged thirty-four miles, close-hauled, +laying our course, the wind being strong and true at southeast. It +might not be thought amiss if I state here what the origin of the +trade-winds is. They are due to the inrush of cold air from the poles +towards the equator to take the place of the warm current which rises +from the latter. Owing to the easterly rotation of the earth on its own +axis the air from the north becomes a northeast wind, and that from +the south a southeast wind. The hot air flows to the poles as an upper +current, and, having been cooled there, it descends to the surface of +the earth to form the westerly or anti-trade-winds. + +At 8.30 this morning a vessel was sighted to windward, bound north, +which soon resolved itself into a tramp steamer. Here was an excellent +chance to be reported; so telling the helmsman to hold her up as much +as possible, the captain hauled out the flags DRHF, bent them on to +the signal-halliards, and when he thought that the steamer had opened +out our monkey-gaff, he told the mate to hoist away; which, being a +very simple operation, he accomplished without accident; and in a +few seconds the flags which spelled our name were fluttering merrily +away a hundred feet above the deck. Anxiously we waited, but no +answering pennant showed from the steamer, and we were about to blast +her skipper with deep-sea anathemas, when she was observed to alter +her course at right angles and come bearing down upon us, pushing a +big snow-bank of foam ahead of her bluff bows. On she came, as if to +lay us aboard, until she was within half a mile, when she shifted her +helm again, describing a deep circle, while at the same instant the +familiar little red-and-white-striped pennant flew up to her triatic +stay, meaning “I understand you”; down came our flags on the run and +“Report me all well” was hoisted instead, or rather it wasn’t hoisted +until after the skipper had discovered that the miserable Goggins had +run up “Steer after me” by mistake, which necessitated some lightning +changes, as the stranger was moving rapidly away. Again the gay little +triangle fluttered from the latter, while we ran the stars and stripes +to the gaff and dipped three times, the other reciprocating with the +scarlet ensign of Great Britain. The steamer then kept away, and in +half an hour was a blot in the northeast; from her course the skipper +thinks that she was from Pernambuco bound to the Cape de Verde. Now, +here is a man who deserves to be publicly commended, and I wish that +we had caught the steamer’s name, that it might appear in these +pages. How many steamer captains are there who will alter the course +for the purpose of speaking a mere wind-jammer? This incident seems +to refute the assertion which is often made about the careless and +what-are-you-to-me-spirit of British ship-masters, for no one could be +more civil or polite than the captain of this tramp; rivalling in this +respect the Germans, who are said to be the most painstaking of all the +nationalities in the reporting of vessels. + +I nearly forgot an agreeable break in the monotony of yesterday. We +sighted a brig in the forenoon ahead and to windward; and though she +had a lot of fore and aft canvas set, which ought to have held her up +well, we rapidly ate up towards her, so that at four o’clock she was +ahead and a little to leeward. We gradually crawled up on her then, and +in another fifteen minutes had her abeam, so close that the features +of her helmsman were clearly visible. Then I thought of our megaphone, +presented to us just before we sailed, and here was a grand opportunity +of putting it to practical use. So I brought it up on deck and the +following conversation ensued: + +“Hello! what brig is that?” + +“The ‘Venturer,’ of Nova Scotia, from Philadelphia for----” Here +followed a terrific aggregation of syllables which we couldn’t catch. + +“When did you sail?” + +“May 7, from Delaware Breakwater. What ship is that?” + +“The ‘Hosea Higgins,’ from New York for San Francisco. Please report us +all well.” A flourish of the arm from a man on her poop answered our +request, which ended the interview. The megaphone worked beautifully, +though they are of no use in windy weather. Of course, the mate, never +having seen one, felt it his duty to jeer at it, which he did by +saying, “That thing, whatever yer call it, ’s no good; I could hear +better’n you without it.” + +[Illustration: Overhauling the “Venturer”] + +Reference to a copy of the _Maritime Register_ on board showed +that the “Venturer” was of one hundred and ninety-three tons, hailed +from Weymouth, Nova Scotia, and was bound to Margem do Torquary, +Brazil; small wonder that we couldn’t understand it before. It reminds +me of an Italian bark which sailed from New York a short time ago +for Alexandretta, the “Nostra Signora del Sacro Cuoro di Jesu.” + +The “Venturer” was what is usually known as a tidy little vessel, and +she made a really fine picture as she surged buoyantly along over the +watery hillocks. Accurately, she was a brigantine, and we got several +very fair photographs of her, though the light was bad. Altogether, +we sight about a dozen vessels a day now, which shows how densely +populated the Atlantic is near the equator. + +A circumstance quite surprising is the frequency with which the mates +leave the poop when on watch; indeed, a good deal more than half of +their time is spent on the main-deck; whereas on ships of foreign +nations it is the general rule that the officer of the watch shall +never leave the poop unless he has some excellent reason; common sense +shows the desirability of always keeping an officer where he will have +full command of the ship. + +Well, we’re doing grandly now, and at noon were only ninety-five miles +from the equator, and should cross it between one and two o’clock +to-morrow morning. Latitude, 1° 35′ north; longitude, 27° 52′ west. + + ++June 7+ + +South latitude! Our expectations were fulfilled, for we entered the +Southern Hemisphere in the morning watch, crossing the great circle +which circumscribes the earth at fifteen minutes past four. Thus we +have entered upon the second stage of our voyage; and while the first +quarter was certainly not everything which could be desired, we reached +the line in very good time, twenty-seven days from New York. If we had +had even a little better luck in the Doldrums, four days could have +been stricken from the twenty-seven; this is a far better passage, +though, than we made in the “Mandalore,” when we had been forty-nine +days at sea before we finally cut the equator. Perhaps the most +comforting part is the fact that the skipper seems to have exhausted +his supply of _aguardiente_, for he has been very solemn and +strictly sober for three or four days. Heaven grant that he has no more +grog! + +This weather is so magnificent now that the memory of our late +smothering calms, during which we were eight days in making four +degrees of southing, has entirely passed away, for we are humming +through the water at eight knots, close-hauled, with streaming +scuppers, while the superb southeast trade-wind sings a blithesome tune +in the rigging. It is the grandest wind that blows; so cool and steady, +and the ocean so sparkles under its influence, with a snow-white crest +topping each sea, reflecting the splendid blue of the heavens in its +azure depths, that existence becomes an unbounded delight. I think, +too, that the finest cloud effects which we saw on our first voyage +were in the southeast Trades. True to precedence, yesterday afternoon +at four o’clock the northeastern sky was obscured by a huge dark cloud +of the color of indigo, and rendered doubly so by the sun shining upon +it; this cloud extended almost to the sea-rim, black and frowning, +while immediately beneath it, on the horizon, appeared some faraway +masses of cumulus cloud of a most beautiful cream color, enchanting the +mind with their loveliness and resembling great yellow icebergs. + +As we were contemplating this spectacle, MacFoy sung out something +which I thought was “Vessel on the lee.” The mate then went aloft for +a better view, and when he had come down I asked him if he could see +the vessel, to which he replied, “St. Paul’s Rocks.” This excited us +at once, and I went up to the cross-jack-yard, from which elevation I +plainly saw against a dark cloud what appeared to be twin light-houses, +like Thatcher’s Island lights at Cape Ann, Massachusetts. Although +fifteen miles distant at the time, and the weather was slightly hazy, +these two rocky columns rising from a depth of two thousand fathoms, +the only land within hundreds of miles, produced an effect wonderfully +majestic and solemn. The exact position of the rocks is 0° 55′ 30′′ +north and 29° 22′ west, and they are five in number, though only two +are of considerable altitude, the loftiest being one hundred feet in +height. They are separated from each other only by narrow chasms, so +that until you approach very close the appearance is that of a single +island. The whole space occupied by St. Paul’s Rocks does not exceed +five hundred yards in length and three hundred in breadth; and while +Darwin concluded that they were not of volcanic origin, more modern +scientists--Renard, Geikie, and Wadsworth--have decided that they are +eruptive. These rocks are totally devoid of vegetation, but are the +resort of incredible numbers of sea-birds, both gannets and noddies, as +well as a certain spider, while the water in the vicinity swarms with +fish, seven varieties having been taken by the “Challenger” during a +very short stay. + +Captain (afterward Admiral) Fitzroy, when in command of the “Beagle” +during her celebrated five years’ voyage, visited these rocks, and +wrote an admirable description thereof. Among his observations is the +following: “The multitude of birds covering the rocks was astonishing, +and they suffered themselves to be kicked about and killed with sticks; +at the same time those on the wing even darkened the sky. Numbers of +fine fish, like the grouper of Bermuda, bit eagerly at baited hooks; +but as soon as a fish was caught a rush of voracious sharks was made +at him, and notwithstanding blows of oars and boat-hooks, the ravenous +monsters could not be deterred from seizing and taking away more than +half the fish that were hooked.” + +Had it been earlier in the day we would have stood in toward the rocks +to behold the surf which rages incessantly against the weather-side. +But it was too late; and even as we looked the lofty obelisks began to +fade away, and at 6.15 we had what I hope will not be our last look +at the lonely St. Paul’s Rocks. The Atlantic Ocean near the equator, +between the meridians of 18° and 23°, is subject to frequent and +violent earthquakes, which have the effect upon a vessel like that +of being dragged over a reef, or that of a heavy chain-cable being +suddenly run out through the hawse-pipes. + +The most singular fact in relation to the component parts of sea-water +is the variation in the proportion of salt; for every ton of Atlantic +water evaporated there is yielded eighty-one pounds of salt; ditto +Pacific, seventy-nine pounds; ditto Arctic, eighty-five; while the Dead +Sea heads the list with one hundred and eighty-seven pounds, though I +have never seen such statistics in regard to our Great Salt Lake. + +Although the temperature in the shade to-day was very agreeable, the +sun’s heat was terrific. It is customary to refer to a “baking sun,” +but I should call that of to-day a boiling sun, on account of the +moisture; and it is strange that on a day like this the sun’s rays +will not dry out a wet towel, though exposed to them for several hours +during the hottest part of the day, so great is the humidity. Latitude, +0° 49′ south; longitude, 29° 53′ west. + + ++June 8+ + +These are fine Trades, though the squalls are severe and sudden. A +few words here, in passing, as to squalls. What landsmen often call a +squall sailors call a puff, such as are experienced along our coasts +with a northwest wind, lasting a few seconds. A sailor’s squall often +lasts for thirty minutes and is accompanied with heavy rain, while it +can be observed approaching in the form of a nimbus cloud touching the +ocean a long while before it reaches the ship. + +In this twenty-four hours we did two hundred and thirteen knots, an +average of more than nine within the hour, while in many of the squalls +we must have been going nearly twelve. How many yachts are there which +can equal this on a bowline? Ship-masters, however, cannot realize how +fast a yacht can sail with a light wind; they all seem to think that +a yacht sails best in a gale. Captain Kingdon often used to say to us +in the Southern Ocean, when we were doing twelve knots before a fresh +gale, “Ah! this is where I’d like to see an able yacht! Sixteen knots, +eh?” And he couldn’t understand that under those conditions a smart +yacht could sail but little, if any, faster than we were doing. But +what is even more difficult for them to grasp is the speed of a racing +yacht in what they call a light air. Sometimes when we were fanning +along at, say, five knots, I used to worry Captain Kingdon by telling +him that a seventy-footer would run him out of sight in that breeze in +a few hours. He refused to believe that any yacht could make nearly ten +knots while the “Mandalore” was doing perhaps five. + +This morning we had a heavy sunrise squall, for which we had to let +go the royal halliards, the sky-sails having been stowed during the +night. But, quick as the men were, the wind was swifter yet; for before +the clew-lines and buntlines could be manned a great rent was made +in the mizzen-royal, and in a few minutes the second mate reported +that the upper foretop-sail was in the same condition; both were, +therefore, unbent and lowered as such, while a brand new mizzen-royal +was sent up, the first of the strong new sails which will be bent +before we reach the bad weather. It was the hardest squall which we +have had yet, and the wind and rain made a thunderous noise while it +lasted; yet, high above the din, could be heard the powerful voice of +Mr. Rarx, shouting to the men to bear a hand with the mizzen-royal +clew-lines. Though there were plenty of squalls throughout the night, +the sky was perfectly clear between them, and thickly studded with fine +constellations, while the moon silvered the great wool-packs as they +sailed serenely up out of the southeast. Quite a sea had made by eight +bells this morning, in which we wallowed a good deal, but lost none of +our way. Sea-birds have been very scarce lately, though a single large +frigate-bird has sailed all day on motionless wing in wide circles +overhead. + +[Illustration: “Eight bells”] + +I wonder how many perfectly well and healthy deep-water captains there +are? This sounds absurd at first, as it is the general opinion that +sea-captains are always thoroughly hearty and strong. Of course some +of them are, for long-voyage skippers not infrequently live to a very +advanced age, proving that they must have always been sound men; yet +in most instances it will be found that they suffer from some malady +brought about in their profession. Perhaps the most common is liver +trouble in conjunction with dyspepsia in some form. Captain Kingdon’s +death, it will be remembered, was caused by a cancer or abscess in +the liver. Such complaints are due to an inactive life for months at +a stretch, for captains, on account of their dignity, cannot take +part in the working of a ship or in pumping her out, so that walking +the poop must constitute all their exercise. Rheumatism, produced by +bad food and exposure, divides the honors with the liver, while from +heart-disease but comparatively few long-voyage captains are free. +It generally develops in those of a nervous temperament, induced by +worry in gales and dread of trouble with the crew if they are unruly, +besides a score of reasons only understood by the initiated. Even in my +very limited experience, I have known three master-mariners afflicted +with cardiac disease. One, a splendid fellow, Coalfleet, of Hantsport, +Nova Scotia, died in his bunk in the North Atlantic; another, in the +Ward Line service, was grievously stricken in Cuba, and had to retire +from the sea; while the third suffered from dreadful intermittent +attacks of angina, but I have lost track of him for several years. +Latitude, 3° 50′ south; longitude, 31° 35′ west. + + ++June 9+ + +Late yesterday afternoon Captain Scruggs came up and said that Fernando +de Noronha was visible to leeward from aloft, and that if we looked +hard enough we might be able to see it from the deck. So we gazed long +and earnestly over to the westward, and there, sure enough, arose a +soft, rose-colored cloud through the mist; and in another half-hour +we could perceive the various islands which constitute this group, +together with the lofty pyramidal rock one thousand feet above the +sea, which crowns the loftiest of the islands, giving it a peculiar +individuality, so that it is not possible to mistake this cluster for +any other known group. We were near enough to count four distinct +islands, the largest of them being twenty miles in circumference, +and we could just make out the tremendous walls of sheer, unbroken +rock falling into the sea; but beyond this it was not given us to +penetrate even with the strongest glasses on board. Would that we had +been fifteen miles nearer, that we might have compared this group with +Trinidad, which rears its desolate summit two thousand and twenty feet +above the sea, fifteen degrees farther south. The spectacle of the +surf breaking on Fernando de Noronha must be even grander than on St. +Paul’s Rocks; for, lying in the very heart of the strong southeast +trade-wind, the full force of the mighty South Atlantic surge dashes +ceaselessly against its basaltic walls. + +Last evening was very fine indeed, the wind having let go sufficiently +to make the deck agreeable; and as the moon shone with great power, +it was a night of remarkable beauty even for the Tropics, although +some ragged scud which blew swiftly across the moon presaged plenty of +wind for to-day. The indications were fulfilled, for it has been very +squally since early this morning; all the royals came in at eleven +o’clock, and we have been plunging along in a broken sea, through +savage blasts which roar in the rigging with an angry voice. The most +unfortunate thing is that the wind is heading us by hauling to the +southward, and for the greater part of the past twenty-four hours we +have been steering well to the westward of southwest; so that, in spite +of our weatherly position on the line, we are going to have trouble +in getting past that portion of Brazil lying to the southward of San +Roque. Indeed, at noon we were only seventy-five miles from the land, +a little south of the Great Bugbear, as Maury pertinently styled the +famous cape. + +For dinner to-day we had canned lobster, which came from the +far-distant Cape of Good Hope; at least, the skipper called them +lobsters, but the mate disgustedly muttered “Crawfish.” This sort of +thing the skipper cannot stand, as he considers it a crime for Mr. +Goggins to know more than he does, and actually resents any information +which the mate volunteers at table. He generally doesn’t care to +exhibit his knowledge in the skipper’s presence, and it is hard to see +why to-day he forgot himself in so unusual a manner. Yesterday, for +instance, I remarked what a particularly hot day it was for the Trades, +and the skipper promptly denied it on principle until furnished with +ocular proof by thermometers, while the mate discreetly observed, “I +feel like gettin’ out me warmer coat.” + +Mr. Goggins is occupied during the first watch every other night in +teaching two of the men where the different ropes lead to on deck. One +of these hapless individuals is Louis Eckers, who doesn’t understand +much English, and the other is John Pettersen, an immensely tall, lean +Dane, who lives in such terror of the mate that he utterly loses his +head at every command. He is, besides, pitifully anxious to please, and +his awkwardness is really remarkable. If there happens to be a rope +yarn in his path he is sure to trip on it, and when he starts to move +in obedience to an order, he first stares all about as though just +recovering consciousness, and then suddenly perceiving that the men +are some distance off by this time, he laboriously gets his lank frame +under way after heavily tripping over some object, and, with elbows +squared and head bent low, he charges like a bull across the deck. +Neither of these men has ever been aboard of a square-rigger before, +and what little sense they have seems to vanish when anything is to be +done. I’ll never forget John’s appearance last night as he clattered +heavily forward toward the forecastle when the mate said ferociously, +“Show me the spanker-sheet.” Poor fellow! so rattled he knew not +whither he was going. + +Speaking of ropes a moment ago reminds me of the largest one ever +made in England. It was of white manila, weighed five tons, and was +twenty-two inches in girth with a breaking strain of eighteen tons. +This huge rope was made a short time ago for the express purpose of +towing a floating dry-dock from the Tyne to Havana, which itself +weighed six thousand tons. Seventy men were required to haul in the +hawser and coil it away. Latitude 6° 18′ south; longitude, 33° 58′ +west. + + ++June 10+ + +Oh, unhappy day! Oh, joyless hour! We could not weather South America +after all! Late yesterday afternoon when I had plotted the run off +on our own chart, I sought the skipper and said to him, “Unless my +chart is out, we’re not more than forty miles off the land.” “No,” +he answered, quietly; “we’re just thirty miles from the beach, and +I’m going to wear ship at six.” How bitter was his tone as he said +this! Bitter and calm with despair, for that which he said in jest +three weeks ago has truly come to pass. Far back in the North Atlantic +one morning, when we were not far enough to the eastward for that +latitude, I asked the captain if he weren’t generally farther east +than we were then. But he made light of it, trusting to his star of +luck, as he jocosely answered, “Oh, well, maybe we’ll have a chance to +look at Brazil.” Prophetic utterance. No one knows until he has “been +there” how it galls a skipper to be caught here, for it often puts +two or three weeks on the length of a voyage. At any rate, when six +o’clock came last evening we wore ship to a running and complicated +accompaniment of boisterous profanity, and stood away east on the +starboard tack. If the Trades were where the general average shows +that they ought to be at this season, east-southeast instead of +south-southeast as they are, we would have fetched by with two or three +degrees to spare. + +The breeze was pretty strong when we turned in last night, and gave +evidence of freshening considerably; but no one looked for any such +wind as we had this morning. We were awakened by the loud voice of +Captain Scruggs, “Haul up the crojjick, Mr. Rarx,” and five minutes +afterwards, “Clew up the t’ga’nt-s’ls fore and aft,” while a sudden +headlong dive showed that something more than a strong breeze was +blowing. Dressing was difficult, and when we finally emerged from the +companion-way, behold the ocean almost white with breaking seas and +a moderate gale whistling from south-southeast. The seas were short +and we plunged heavily into them with an unpleasant jerk; but it was a +glorious sight to watch the billows as they came roaring at us, deep +blue in the hollows and crested with hissing froth. We hadn’t been more +than half an hour on deck when the captain sung out, “Haul down the +maintop-mast stay-sail and clew up the main-sail,” which meant that we +were going to wear again and stand in shore. We were nearly in the wind +on the other tack, and the second mate had just roared out, “Head-yards +now,” when crash! a tall sea fell over the weather side and full upon +the wee Chinese cook, the meekest, jolliest little fellow imaginable. +He was standing outside of the galley door when that sea claimed him. +It slammed him first against the main hatch; washed him back into the +scuppers; then aft nearly to the cabin bulkhead, and finally sat him +fiercely down by the pumps, during which evolutions the frail little +fellow could be perceived shooting about in the surging waters, his +long, black, thin pig-tail curling and writhing several feet behind +him. After the water had partly run off, half burying the men on the +lee foresheet, our little Chinaman lay very still, and we feared that +he was badly hurt, though the men were roaring with laughter, while the +skipper thundered “Why in h---- don’t yer pick him up?” to the mates, +who stood as though petrified, gazing at a cask of sea-water bearing +down on the cook which would have flattened him like one of his own +pancakes. All at once he came to, however, saw the barrel almost on +him, and skilfully rolled out of the way of it, escaping with some +painful bruises on his arms. + +This was the only sea that boarded us, and we were soon straightened +out on the old port tack, steering southwest, and doing scarcely four +knots, for we were under short canvas and the seas pounded us back, +and even now we will hardly go free of the land; for in spite of our +twelve hours of easting during the night, a powerful northwest current +has set us back to such an extent that our noon sight showed us that we +were only ten miles farther off-shore than at the corresponding hour +yesterday, and that we had made only thirty miles of southing. If the +wind shifts only a point, though, we might be able to weather the land +after all. + +Last night the mate and I had a conversation about fast passages, and +he said to me, “I can tell yer, there was plenty of smart ships thirty +or forty years ago that yer never hear tell of nowadays. There’s the +Boston ship ‘Siren,’ as I was mate of; we were comin’ around from +Coquimbo, bound to Liverpool, when we were caught in a pampero off the +river Plate. It come in a squall as usual, and the fust thing I know, +there was the fore- and maint’-gallant-masts over the side. We didn’t +have no spare spars aboard, but, in spite of that, we went from 3° +south right into Liverpool in nineteen days. Pretty good for a lame +duck, and considering the Doldrums, too. + +“Then there was a smart passage I heered tell of the other day about a +modern ship, the British ship ‘King George’; she went from Cape Town up +to the Delaware Capes in forty-seven days.” + +This last was really a fine performance, for the distance which she +covered was six thousand eight hundred miles. Compare this passage +with the voyages of sailing vessels to the westward across the North +Atlantic in winter. They are nearly always fifty days coming across, +and not infrequently seventy, or nearly a month longer than the “King +George” was from South Africa, while the distance is less than half. + +In the Gulf of Mexico trade there is a wonderfully fast little +fore-and-aft schooner called the “Margaret S. Smith,” of Portland, +Maine. This vessel ran on one occasion from Ruatan, Honduras, to +Mobile in seventy-two hours, which was an hourly average of twelve and +one-half knots; and considering that the net tonnage of this schooner +is only one hundred and twelve, her performance must be regarded as +almost phenomenal. There are not very many large sailing ships in these +days which can show a record of three hundred miles per diem for three +consecutive days; yet the “Smith” is doubtless less than one hundred +feet long. + +The other day I managed to get a large dollop of slush on a pair of +thick trousers, and I asked the skipper if Sammie, the boy, couldn’t +get it out, thinking that he could do so with some soap and a little +warm water. But lo! fifteen minutes later I saw my trousers soaking +away in a tub of water like a pair of dungaree breeches! This, as I +observed before, is the way with seafaring people: whenever there is +aught amiss with a garment, pop it goes into the wash-tub. Latitude, 6° +49′ south; longitude, 33° 48′ west. + + ++June 11+ + +“All hands wear ship; all hands ’bout ship.” These are the cries +which ring constantly through the vessel now. Woful to tell, the +Trades are still from the south-southeast, though the captain in some +way has contrived to control his temper to a wonderful degree; such +unlooked-for and devilish a performance of the Trades is enough to +finally ruin any skipper’s chances of entrance into Heaven’s Gate, or +the Golden Gate either. + +Last evening at five o’clock we descried the land from aloft on the lee +or starboard bow, and after supper it was very plain from the deck, so +that at six we tacked and stood off shore again. At that time the sun +had just sank behind the sandy wastes of the Brazilian coast, casting +a deep crimson light over the sea; while dead ahead, at the extremity +of a profound curve in the coast-line, Point Pedras rose out of the +ocean in a low headland, with a tremendous mass of gloomy cloud above +it, lending to that part of the scene a sombre and awful aspect. Though +the land did not show up sufficiently well to allow us to perceive any +of its characteristics, it was plain enough to permit us to say that +we distinctly saw the shore-line of this vast and torrid land. Point +Pedras, it might be well to state, is not only the easternmost point of +Brazil, but of the entire Western Hemisphere, being forty-five miles +farther east than Cape San Roque. + +This afternoon we perceived a disturbance at the end of the +fishing-line which is always towing astern, and it was presently seen +that we had hooked a fine specimen of the sailor’s dolphin, the most +beautiful in coloring of all deep-water fish. I think that it might be +as well to apply the name dolphin to this fish from now forward, if +there should be occasion to mention one again. Of course it isn’t a +dolphin at all, but as sailors call it so, and this is supposed to be a +book about sailors, this name is as good as any other. + +Carefully we coaxed him up beneath the counter and then tried to kill +him by holding his mouth out of water, for he would have parted the +line if we had attempted to haul him aboard. As he sheared about on the +end of the line he presented a spectacle which was actually gorgeous, +and, being immediately above him, our view was perfect. His motions +were the very ideal of grace, and as he moved swiftly from side to side +he exhibited in succession all of his wonderful hues, vivid greens and +yellows merging into silver and Prussian blue. His antics were cut +short, however, by the arrival of the mate with the grains, which he +skilfully drove into the creature’s side (what a useless slaughter!), +and he was hauled up over the stern. Then we stood by for the dying +colors. Out upon them! Not for a single instant can they compare with +those of the fish in his natural condition, when, darting about a +fathom or so beneath the surface, he positively enchants the eye with +his brilliancy. He will yield us fresh food for supper, such as it is; +but all deep-sea fish are poor and dry, save one, the flying-fish, +which, if served in a restaurant with tartare sauce, I’m sure could not +be detected from a smelt. + +One often hears the discussion in shipping and yachting circles as +to the seaworthiness of fore-and-aft schooners in comparison with +square-riggers for deep-water work, and the question is often raised, +“Which would make the faster passage to San Francisco from New York, +the ship or the schooner?” Naturally there are points in favor of each; +the advantage lying with the ship when off the wind in strong breezes, +and with the schooner when by the wind. In the case of a voyage to, +say, Hong-Kong, in the southwest monsoons, the ship would probably +arrive at her destination ahead of the other, as there would be five +thousand miles of hard westerly (fair) winds in the Southern Ocean, +and another long stretch of free wind from the Straits of Sunda to +Hong-Kong. On the other hand, in a westerly passage of Cape Horn, in +which the vessel would be probably close-hauled for two or three weeks +in the Southern Ocean, or perhaps more than a month, the schooner would +have an immense advantage in being able to lie at least two points +closer than the ship, if the wind allowed her to carry enough sail to +go ahead. The wind is generally too heavy in the vicinity of Cape Horn, +though, to allow a small vessel to show much canvas when close-hauled, +and the passages of four schooners to San Francisco found below +indicate that in reality there is not much difference between the +voyages of these schooners and the average of square-riggers. They were +all Gloucester fishermen, and were sent out by Mr. Horatio Babson, +of Boston, loaded with fishing supplies, rosin, pork, and hardware, +between 1868 and 1873. + + Tons. Days. + + “Urania” 92 125 + “Varuna” 92 131 + “Laura M. Mangam” 85 131 + “Reunion” 90 148 + +The average of these vessels was one hundred and thirty-four days, as +against one hundred and forty-five for square-riggers; so that whatever +advantage they may have gained off Cape Horn and in the northeast +Trades in the Pacific, they, doubtless, lost in the long stretches +of southeast Trades on both sides of the continent. It must also be +added that all the schooners sailed during the month of November, so +as to reach Cape Horn in the middle of the southern summer. This fact +seems to me to be a good answer to those ship-masters who are wont +to assert that they would rather double Cape Horn in July than in +January,--_i.e._, in winter than in summer,--saying that the gales +are harder in the latter month than in June and July. But the fact +that November was chosen for the schooners by a man who was no doubt +familiar with the Southern Ocean would indicate that the weather there +is better in January. + +To-day Mr. Rarx told me of a novel and very successful way of manning +a vessel with what is known as a checker-board crew. Two forecastles +are necessary, or one with a dividing bulkhead, all the men of one +watch being white and the others black. If they were together in +one forecastle, violent hostilities would continuously prevail; but +if separated, they will work against and try to outdo each other; +so that, with a little judicious flattery or word of encouragement, +such work as the making and shortening of sail, tacking and wearing, +will be done with incredible alacrity. All-negro crews are held in +esteem by some long-voyage skippers, but the men are said to be very +unruly at sea, though fearless sailors; while the singing on board of +a ship manned by darkies, both chanties and otherwise, is said to be +wonderfully good. Latitude, 7° 35′ south; longitude, 34° 20′ west. + + ++June 12+ + +No abatement of the southerly wind. We thought this morning that the +breeze was certainly going to haul to the eastward; but the wind, +though strong enough, yet hangs in the south-southeast, and we are, +therefore, still hammering away at it, tacking or wearing four times +in each twenty-four hours, so that in four days we have made only +ninety-eight miles of southing, a rate of nearly exactly a mile an +hour. Apropos of which Rumps made quite an original remark last +evening. For the full comprehension of the observation it must be +explained that if there is much wind and sea a ship will not make +better than a seven-point course,--that is, with the wind at south she +will do about west by south, or almost at a right angle. So the bosun +remarked, “Well, here we are, walking up and down the avenue, eh?” It +described what we were doing perfectly. + +This morning, while on the starboard tack, the skipper, who has now +lost every vestige of the patience which he formerly exhibited, thought +that at last the wind was going to shift to southeast at least, so +he sung out to wear round; but when we were snugged down on the port +tack, we fell off to southwest half west, exactly as before. It seemed +impossible that a human being could have shown such boundless rage as +the captain did then. We could hear him muttering away at the farther +side of the poop, “What’s the use? No sort of use; no sort of use +at all.” And then, in a frenzy of sudden wrath, he stamped lustily +upon the deck and swore like the mouth of the pit, his wiry whiskers +bristling as though electrified, as he fiercely wagged his head; for he +wot not that we were hard by. Then his eye wandered to the main-deck, +and down the weather poop-ladder he clattered, looking for trouble, for +we could hear him growling and mumbling at the galley door. + +In rough weather, instead of ordinary teacups we have large, flat, +china utensils, which look like shaving-mugs, so that at first I seemed +to miss the brush. The mate, thinking to have another go at merrie +England, cried, triumphantly, “I’ll bet you had nothin’ like them on +the ‘Mandalore.’” But we quite shocked him with the information that +on that good ship we were furnished not only with these useful pieces +of crockery, but with some which held an imperial quart, from which +we drank our soup in heavy weather as from Brobdingnagian teacups. +Perhaps Mr. Goggins was never so absurd as to-day after dinner, when +he confidentially called to me and said, “Say, did yer hear the cap’n +say ‘pressperation’ instead of ‘perspiration’ just now? There ain’t no +such a word, yer know”; this with an urbanity which would have floored +a Chinaman. + +Mr. Rarx, too, sometimes favors us with some observations entirely +_sui generis_, and particularly droll in that he has a well-inflated +opinion of his own choice of English. He was telling of a painful +accident which happened to him several years ago, in which his back +was wrenched; “and, sir,” he concluded, “I didn’t know what to do; I +couldn’t stand, and I couldn’t lay, and I couldn’t set.” We wondered +whether he were possessed of any sort of ornithological accomplishments. + +In windy weather wearing stirs up a lively scene. This is how it is +done on the “Higgins”: The skipper is pacing athwartships, undecided +whether to hold on any longer or not; then suddenly he stops, walks to +the break of the poop, and says quietly to the mate, “See the braces +clear for running, Mr. Goggins.” In five minutes or so the mate catches +the captain’s eye, and asks, “Are you ready, sir?” + +“Am I ready, sir!” repeats the latter, who will have nothing suggested +to him; “most certainly I am _not_ ready; don’t you see that +squall to windward?” + +The mate withers; and when it has passed the idea of having to +break tacks again seems to have festered in the skipper’s mind, +for he suddenly snaps out, “All hands wear ship,” like a bunch of +fire-crackers going off. “All h-a-n-d-s wear ship” roar the mates, +running forward to rouse out the men, and aft they tumble and take +up their positions at the various ropes. Then the skipper begins his +harangue with voice of thunder and wind-mill arms: “Haul away on your +main and crojjick buntlines and clew-garnets; square the crojjick-yard; +you at the wheel, hard up yer hellum. Weather main-braces now; haul +away, you blasted old women; come in on those tops’l-braces. Head-yards +now; let go the foretack; foresheet now, all hands; forebraces; steady +your wheel.” The ship by this time has fallen off dead before the wind, +and the old man is in the zenith of his passion, whirling back and +forth across the poop, belching perfect volcanoes of profanity. + +“Main-braces again now; overhaul those spilling-lines and that main lee +inner buntline; again your main-braces; crojjick-tack, ---- ---- it; +look alive there and get that main-sheet aft; lead it to the capstan; +heave; in she comes, that’s well. Main and crojjick bowlines now; +that’s the style. Haul taut the weather-braces fore and aft, and clear +up the decks.” + +[Illustration: Hauling taut the braces] + +This oration is delivered in a hurricane voice to an accompaniment +of roaring wind and flying spray, which sometimes enshrouds the whole +forecastle like a snow-squall; and the mates whiz about, driving the +men before them, and they in turn rend the air with their cries as they +come in on the braces. Each man seems to have an individual ejaculation +when hauling away, only one man, of course, singing out at each rope; +but as there are often half a dozen knots of men at work, there are as +many strange yells. Louis, the Frenchman, says, “Ho-ho-ho-ho-ho-ho-ho,” +beginning very deep and ending in a falsetto; Broadhead, one of +the youngest and smartest seamen in the ship, eases his mind with +“Hoo-oop, come in with her; oh, fiddle-strings; oh, split the wind”; +Olafsen cries, “Ha-joop, ha-joop”; while Timothy Powers, the wild, +carrot-topped Irishman, screams, “Yah ha-a-a-a, yah ha-a-a-a,” like a +freight train with the brakes on. + +Best of all, though, are the chanties; and as the men know each other +well by this time, there are plenty of them; and good old songs they +are, songs of the days of ’49, into which the men throw heart and soul. +Some of the best ones for hauling are, “Blow, my Bully Boys, Blow,” “A +Long Time Ago,” and “A Poor Old Man,” which latter two I believe that I +mentioned before; while some of the melodies sung to pumping ship are +even better. One is “The Plains of Mexico,” entirely in the minor, with +a weird effect; another, “The Banks of the Sacramento,” each verse of +which ends,-- + + “For there’s plenty of gold, + So I am told, + On the banks of the Sacramento.” + +[Illustration: “Blow, my bully boys, blow”] + +Still another, “The Girls of Dublin Town,” is sung to the Southern tune +of the “Bonnie Blue Flag,” the final words of each stanza being,-- + + “Then it’s hurrah, hurrah, + For the girls of Dubberlin town; + Hurrah for the bonnie green flag, + And the harp without a crown.” + +“John Brown’s Whiskey-Bottle’s Empty on the Shelf” and “Give a Man +Time to Roll a Man Down” are too well known to need comment. It is a +fine sight to see eight muscular fellows at the pump-handles in the +dusk of the evening, their broad backs standing forth against the dark +recesses, rising and falling as they sing their favorite choruses, +MacFoy of the port watch and Murphy of the starboard always supplying +the solo parts. Latitude, 7° 56′ south; longitude, 30° 4′ west. + + ++June 13+ + +Worse and worse! The wind is more ahead than ever, and in the last +twenty-four hours we made six thousand and eighty feet of southing, or +precisely one sea-mile. Between yesterday noon and six in the evening +we did make a few miles of latitude, for we tacked ship at the latter +hour close to Cape St. Agostinho in 8° 40′ south; but after standing +over on the starboard tack till one o’clock to-day, we went back again +to the northward, and at mid-day the sun told us that we had made only +one mile of latitude to the good. I thought that the captain intended +to stand off shore this time for at least two hundred and fifty miles; +but when both watches had dined at one o’clock, we wore round again and +once more stood in for the beach. What a pity it is that we can’t make +better use of this magnificent breeze, which is too strong for even a +main-royal! Free, eleven knots would be our speed now, instead of which +we go diving hard into it jammed on the wind, pegging along at never +more than six knots, four points off our course on the most favorable +tack. + +Last evening we were presented with a most exquisite panorama of the +Brazilian coast. At noon we were immediately east of Pernambuco, about +thirty-five miles off shore; and, continuing on our southwesterly +course, we brought the land aboard twenty-five miles south of that +city at five o’clock. All that we could make out of the shore at that +time was that it consisted of a succession of lofty hills; and it was +not until we came up from supper at six o’clock that we saw the land +distinctly enough to appreciate aught of its beauty, lying as it did +at that hour broad on the starboard beam and ahead. On the quarter +appeared dimly the snow-white angular walls of a little town lying +snugly on an arm of the sea, glowing warm and mellow in the rich light; +while by the aid of glasses we perceived, shrouded in the mists of a +thundering surf, broad stretches of coral sand fringed at high-water +mark with clusters of palmettos and cabbage-palms; back of these, +dancing and shimmering in heat-waves, rolled the sand-dunes; and then +came the series of lovely hills rising tier on tier into the interior, +rich in that wonderfully luxuriant vegetation that clothes the surface +of equatorial Brazil, with the veils of night mist just beginning to +form in the valleys and deep ravines. The whole of this fascinating +scene lay steeped in the after-glow of a superb sunset, which touched +everything with a reddish-golden tinge to be observed only in the +tropics. + +Lying almost entirely within the torrid zone, the climate of Brazil is +naturally a very hot one, and is also extremely humid, the rainfall for +the year at Maranhão amounting to the enormous total of two hundred and +eighty inches, or seven times greater than that of New York. Such an +excess of moisture has a corresponding effect upon its plant life, and +has given Brazil a wealth of vegetation not excelled by any country of +the world. Travellers assert that it is utterly beyond description, +and that in the ravines and passes near the coast, where the humidity +is intense, it defies man’s utmost efforts at restraint. Even as far +south as Rio, trees split for palings send forth shoots and branches +immediately; and on the banks of the Amazon, the level of which mighty +stream is yearly raised forty feet by the immense rainfall, the +loftiest trees destroy each other by their proximity, and are literally +bound together by rich vines and lianes. In the province of Maranhão, +the grasses, roots, and other plants extending from the brinks of +pools in time weave themselves into vegetable bridges, along which the +traveller wends his way, unaware that he has left terra firma until he +perceives the scaly jaws of an alligator protruding through the herbage +before him. On all sides the vegetation is bewildering, and every +representative of plant life is of a gigantic size. + +But to return to ourselves. Happening to glance ahead a little later +we caught a glimpse of the great light-house on the extremity of Cape +St. Agostinho just as its beacon flashed over the sea, sending its +brilliant needles of light far out over the moon-lit ocean. Just at +dusk a large coasting steamer came unexpectedly out from under the +hills, in whose stern waved the green-and-gold flag of Brazil; and, +heading south across the wide wake of the moon, suddenly vanished in +the gloom beyond the sombre headland. The light on Cape St. Agostinho, +by the way, can compare favorably with our most powerful ones, for its +rays are visible twenty-five miles at sea; the tower being in the form +of a white iron tripod one hundred and sixty feet high, whose apex is +three hundred and sixty feet above the ocean. Indeed, on the whole of +the South American seaboard, from the Guianas to Cape Horn, there is +only one other light which equals it, and that is on Cape Frio, just to +the eastward of Rio Janeiro. + +Speaking of Cape Horn, I wonder when we’re going to see that famous +rock? At this present rate we would be several months in beating down +the coast; if we were only as far south now as the Abrolhos Islands, we +could begin to keep off a little, that being about the first point at +which ships bound to the westward begin to think of bearing away. The +old mate told us the other day that coming to the eastward towards New +York this last time, they unbent the foresail and made some repairs to +it on the main-deck with Cape Horn in sight! This means that there was +not enough sea there at the time to wet the decks, for a sail is never +stretched there if there is any probability of water coming aboard. + +The sea has now returned to its usual Prussian blue, for, being on +soundings yesterday afternoon, it changed to a most beautiful, pale, +transparent green, owing to the white, sandy bottom over which we +sailed, only twenty fathoms away; our least distance from the land +having been about eight miles. Latitude, 7° 57′ south; longitude, 32° +47′ west. + + ++June 14+ + +Though the Trades are still from the south-southeast, we have done +very well, as an offing of one hundred and thirty miles has enabled +us to hold on to the port tack all day; and as the coast-line south +of Maceió trends slightly to the westward, we may be able to go free +of the land until we reach the Abrolhoses, for which it will no doubt +be necessary for us to make a slight hitch. We were more than seven +days in making nine degrees of latitude; for, a week ago last night, +we passed the St. Paul’s Rocks fifty-five miles north of the line, and +yesterday we had not quite reached the eighth parallel. Can the reader +duplicate this tortoise-like progression in the southeast trade-wind? +It is more like the Doldrums in spite of a spanking breeze. Sometimes +when there is a lull in the wind the deep voice of Captain Scruggs +will be heard, “Loose the main-royal”; but five minutes later will +come the order, “Let go the main-royal-halliards; and you can put +the gaskets on, Mr. Rarx, we won’t want it any more.” This word +“loose” is almost invariably used at sea, and you never hear “Set the +mizzen-t’-gallant-s’l” or “Hoist the fore-sky-s’l”; they are always +“loosed.” + +At dinner to-day the skipper said, “I’ll bet they’ve been having +trouble off the river Plate lately.” “Why?” said I. “Don’t you see +this swell a-heavin’ up?” he replied; “they’ve been having a southerly +buster down there.” Now, that portion of the South Atlantic in the +vicinity of that vast estuary, the Rio de la Plata, is subject to +terrific gales of wind known as pamperos, because they blow off the +pampas or plains of the Argentine; but the skipper, having lived long +on the coast of Australia, where the hardest gales are called southerly +busters, usually gives that name to the pampero. + +The Rio de la Plata should never be called the Plat River, pronouncing +it as we do the Platte River in Nebraska; if the English form is used +at all, it should be called Plate, which is so universal that one of +the largest, if not the largest, shipping-houses doing business in +South America is known as the Brazil and River Plate Steamship Company. + +A rather singular fact in connection with the skipper is that he has +never been to any one of the three largest and most important ports +between Cancer and Capricorn,--Calcutta, Bombay, or Rio Janeiro. This +is really astonishing, as it would be hard indeed to find another +American sailor brought up in the last generation who had never been +to either Calcutta or Rio; Bombay is more modern. Captain Scruggs +is quite interested in the Nicaraguan Canal project, and he insists +that with its completion will pass away the sailing ship from the +face of the waters, though I do not entirely agree in this theory. +People also thought that when the Suez Canal was cut through it would +kill the long-voyage trade to the East; yet what are the facts? It +is probable that nearly double the number of sailing vessels pass +Agulhas per year as pass Cape Horn, fully eight hundred rounding +Africa in both directions in a twelvemonth. The amount of case oil +alone from New York and Philadelphia which goes East in sail bottoms +is enormous. Few people, though, realize how much cheaper it is to +ship goods from New York to either San Francisco or China in sailing +vessels than by rail or steamer. For instance, the railway freights +from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans averages about fifteen dollars +per ton; sailing ship rates, from seven to eight dollars per ton, and +often less. Eighty thousand cases of oil, which would be the cargo of +a modern two-thousand net ton iron sailing vessel, are transported to +Shanghai around Good Hope for seventeen thousand dollars; but if they +were sent overland to San Francisco from New York, and then by steamer +to destination, the freight charges would be trebled, for they would +amount to fifty thousand dollars. + +We have just finished reading aloud the book which contains perhaps +the finest descriptions of tropical scenery in English,--Kingsley’s +“Westward Ho.” Nothing could be more charming than the picture of +the delight of the scurvy-ridden fellow-voyagers of Amyas Leigh upon +first landing in the West Indies; while the description of a Barbadian +sunrise is positively entrancing. Latitude, 10° 15′ south; longitude, +34° 35′ west. + + ++June 15+ + +Another very excellent run was the result of yesterday’s work, even +though we could not steer a better course than southwest, for we +made not far from three degrees of latitude, finding at noon that +Bahia bore west, distant one hundred and twenty miles, so that we are +at the moment some distance off the land. Last night was one of the +grandest that we ever remember at sea. A strong breeze whistled from +the southeast at an angle of about forty-five degrees to the long +southerly swell, making a rather confused sea in which we sheared +about considerably, our high, powerful bows crushing the steep head +seas which came rushing ceaselessly at us, piling up on either hand +a hissing wall of foam and then flinging it far away on both bows, +which, meeting the next on-rushing wave, and impinging one against the +other, would shoot up to an astonishing height, to be driven back again +in a perfect hurricane of spray, which drenched the forecastle-head, +completely obliterating for the moment the lookout, who emerged from +these showers like the shade of Neptune, with the water dripping from +his oil-skins in the moonlight in glistening rivulets. The moon herself +was full almost at the moment of rising, shining with so great an +effulgence as to necessitate the partial closing of the eyelids if one +looked at the disk, and casting a weird light upon the abysses of a +heavy rain-squall crossing our stern. I don’t know when we have enjoyed +an evening as much as this one, lying at full length in deck-chairs, +watching the mizzen-truck roll through the stars in tremendous arcs, +and listening to the bursting of the seas against the bows and the +hissing of the water as it rushed under the counter. There is but one +word which describes it,--ideal. + +Has any one ever seen a keg of root-beer tapped in hot weather after +it has been well shaken up? Or has any one ever heard of a keg of +root-beer at all. I have always thought of it in bottles. However, +we have one on board, and if the expansive force of a superheated, +well-agitated barrel of root-beer can be appreciated, it will be +understood that we had a very animated and sprightly thirty minutes +this forenoon. Ever since the commencement of the voyage a beer-keg +of this fluid has been churning and rattling away under one of the +alley-ways which extend aft on either side of the cabin-house. For +some time past the skipper has been cautioning us to save all the +Apollinaris bottles, as he wanted to fill them, in cool weather, with +the root-beer. But he grew impatient, and concluded to broach the keg +this morning, after the contents had been well shaken up for a week in +equatorial heat. Therefore he gathered round about him a phalanx of +empty bottles, and, assisted by the second mate and the boy Sammie, +advanced hardily against the passive “kag.” After much ado, and the +use of sundry expletives and the dripping of perspiration, they got it +mounted on its side upon a low wooden box, wedged it, held a bottle +under the spigot, turned the faucet, and stood by. But something was +wrong; no liquor flowed, so that the spigot must have been plugged +with something. “Mr. Rarx,” said the skipper, “go and get a bit of +stiff wire.” Back came the second mate at the end of a minute, during +which Captain Scruggs was engaged in impotently kicking and pounding +the keg; and when Mr. Rarx had brought the wire, he spent ten minutes +jabbing away with it, eliciting with great force now and then a little +jet of brown foam, which generally hit him somewhere in the face, which +he persisted in holding in front of the spigot. Tiring of this, which +gave promise of lasting all day without bearing fruit, he despatched +the carpenter for an auger, having finally reached the conclusion that +it was for lack of a vent that nothing would flow. The second mate +was intrusted with its manipulation, and very confidently proceeded +to bore a hole in the bung in the upper side. The wildest dream could +not have pictured huger success. No sooner had the instrument pierced +the wood than, with a hissing shriek, a column of dark liquid as big +as a pencil shot high into the air like the spouting of a whale, +breaking full against Mr. Rarx’s head, after blowing the auger out +of the hole. Then there were frantic shoutings for a plug, while the +little cascade played merrily away, falling in a gentle shower of +amber froth upon those who tried in vain to stay its impetuous flow. +Finally it was plugged, and the skipper called for a tumbler, that +he might draw a glassful of the godly nectar, and, sipping it, gain +courage for the bottling operation. But, oh, misery! No sooner was +the faucet turned than out shot a horizontal stream of root-beer as +large as a garden-hose, and with such incredible force that the liquid +was blown into a sticky foam a few inches from the spigot. Then there +was a rush for utensils on every one’s part but the skipper’s, who +stuck fearlessly to his post in spite of the thick jet of mucilaginous +steam, trying to turn the faucet with a monkey-wrench. During this +exhibition my wife and I stood at the break of the poop, looking down +upon the actors, and simply howling at the old man, who, crouched low +upon the deck, wrestled like a gladiator with the unruly “kag”; and +when he finally emerged from his vapor-bath, with dripping beard and +garments soaked to the skin, I feared that the second mate would die of +apoplexy. However, most of the beer was saved, and we filled and corked +away fully seventy-five bottles of the bubbling mixture. Latitude, 12° +51′ south; longitude, 36° 2′ west. + + ++June 16+ + +Most doleful to disclose, the Trades began to let go this morning, and +at ten o’clock the sky-sails were set for the first time in several +days, while at the present moment, the middle of the afternoon, we +are doing wretchedly, even though we have come up to south-southwest. +As for the day, it was really magnificent; temperature of the air, +80°; of the sea, 78°, while the breeze was of that singular mixture of +vigor and balm so often observed in the southeast trade-wind. Not a +cloud specked the deep cobalt of the heavens all day save some feathery +mare’s-tails near the zenith and a few clusters of pearly clouds on the +southeastern horizon. + +As usual, though, there was something to mar the serenity of the +day; how many days are there without some untoward incident to cast +its fell shadow? In this case it was the temper of Captain Scruggs, +who no sooner did he perceive that the wind was letting go than he +at once began to blackguard the men and the weather in wild, lurid +language. Perhaps he wanted to catch up with himself, for it must be +chronicled that three days, actually three long days, seventy-two +hours, have passed without his having consigned any one’s immortal +parts to the fathomless pit! Last evening my wife asked him if about +20° south wasn’t the average spot to lose the Trades; this, in truth, +is about the usual place at which the southeast winds vanish, but the +disagreeable man glared at us for a few seconds and then snapped, “How +do I know? You’re liable to lose ’m anywhere,” with an explosion on the +final word. + +It is strange how he always tries to show that he knows just a little +bit better than any one else; if, for instance, I asked him if +Montevideo wasn’t in 34° 50′ south, he would be certain to reply, “No; +34° 55′,” on which occasions the mate usually gazes in wonder at him, +and then smiles gently at us, as though to say, “You see, you can’t +teach him.” + +Ahead of us, distant from fifty to two hundred miles, lie a number +of shoal spots, called the Royal Charlotte, David Scott, Hotspur, +Busbridge, Victoria, and Fly Banks. There are more than twenty fathoms +on all of them, though, except on a certain unnamed shoal, thirty miles +south-southeast of the Fly Bank, on which the ship “Professor Airy” +struck in 1875. I wonder whether the water is discolored on these +spots? It would be rather strange to come suddenly upon a stretch of +green sea surrounded on all sides by water of the darkest blue. + +In a copy of _Harper’s Round Table_ on board I found an amusing +article called “A Yankee Skipper’s Trick,” which seemed good enough to +transcribe, so here it is: “A good anecdote is told illustrating the +superior enterprise of the Yankee skippers years ago. The New Bedford +whalers left port for many a long voyage, sometimes to the far north, +at other times to the far south. These intrepid followers of the sea +sought and pursued the whale into the ice-clad latitudes about the +poles with a natural fearlessness. A squadron sent out by Russia to +explore the south seas, and reach the pole if possible, had attained +a degree of latitude which the commodore proudly told himself had +never been reached before by white man or other human beings. While +he reflected upon the fame which would surely embellish his name, +his sailors cried, ‘Land ho!’ Off to the south he descried a long, +low-lying bit of land, and hastened to shape his course to reach it, +there to plant the Russian standard on its highest point, claiming it +in the name of His Majesty. + +“What was his disgust and astonishment when, as his vessel approached +the shore, he observed, over a bit of headland, a flag fluttering from +a mast-head. In a few minutes a little schooner poked her nose around +the point and came sailing smartly over the waves towards his vessel. +The lean, Yankee captain, who was standing in the rigging as the +schooner came up in the wind, yelled,-- + +“‘Ahoy there! What ship is that?’ + +“‘His Majesty’s ship the ----.’ + +“‘Well, this is the ‘Nantucket’ from Massachusetts. We’re doing a +little piloting in these latitudes, and if you want to run in the cove +yonder, why, we’ll pilot you in for a small charge.’ + +“The commodore’s disgust caused him to square his yards and shape his +course to Russia.” Latitude, 16° 11′ south; longitude, 37° 15′ west. + + ++June 17+ + +I don’t expect that we will weather the Abrolhoses after all; we might +be able to scrape along, but that would be taking chances, which +Captain Scruggs never does. The chief danger in holding on to this +course would be that of drifting foul of the reefs which stud the ocean +in the vicinity of these islands. Therefore at eight o’clock this +evening we will go around on the other tack, and it is to be hoped +that we’ll do better than we did yesterday, with only ninety miles of +latitude to our credit. This day was even finer than its predecessor, +and we had some very grand cloud scenery, the eastern horizon being +covered at five in the afternoon with great cirro-cumulus clouds in +which we could perceive a number of bright luminous spots on the +sea-line, called by sailors “sun-dogs”; being the bases of brilliant +rainbows whose arches were concealed by the heavy clouds, producing a +strange appearance. + +The carpenter is now engaged in hewing out a new maintop-gallant-yard, +a slow but interesting piece of work. The old one is weak and may not +withstand the heavy weather of Cape Horn, and the maintop-gallant-sail +is a very important one. It is as well to observe here, that +whenever anything carries away aboard of this ship it is never +spliced and forced to do further duty, as is the case on many +vessels; the sheet, clew-line, or whatever has parted, is at once +unrove, and a brand-new rope takes its place. The first illustration +which we had of this was one morning in the Doldrums, when the +maintop-gallant-stay-sail-halliards parted with a crack, and the +half-dozen men on the end of it, among whom was myself, went down in +a heap. Without a word a new piece of manila was rove in its place; +and the same thing happened to the spanker-sheet a few nights ago. +Indeed, this is one of the distinguishing marks of a Yankee ship. You +will rarely find a piece of old running-gear aboard of a square-rigger +flying the stars and stripes. + +Late yesterday afternoon we caught another dolphin, a small one, +weighing about fifteen pounds. He showed none of the splendid blues of +our first fish, though the yellows and greens were very fine. Indeed, +this dolphin, as he was towed through the water under the counter, +resembled nothing so much as a strip of gorgeous, glittering satin, +particularly whenever, as the fish rose slightly above the surface, +a glossy sheen irradiated his lithe, elegant body. And immediately +afterward we captured a bonito, about as large as a bluefish. + +And now we have come to the first piece of inhumanity or gross cruelty +of which either of us has been a witness on board. What we saw before +was not much out of the way, except in regard to the bad language and +the general atmosphere of “toughness” that pervaded the encounters; but +even they were nothing to speak of when the character of the mates on +American sailing ships is taken into consideration. That which I saw +this afternoon, though, went far beyond hazing, for it assumed the form +of full-fledged brutality. I want to begin at the commencement, so as +to bring the whole affair to light and allow the reader to judge for +himself. + +The actors in the little drama which just escaped being a tragedy +were Mr. Rarx and the Finn, Karl Karlsen. This fellow is slow and +thick-headed, with a very hazy idea of English, but is always one +of the first to jump if he understands the order. He was told this +afternoon at about three o’clock to overhaul a certain tackle, one +block of which was belayed to a pin in the rail, while the second mate +stood by, having in his hand another massive block of a threefold +purchase. The captain was below asleep, and I was standing at the +forward end of the poop, not twenty feet from Karl. Suddenly Mr. Rarx, +who was in a very bad humor, as I could see, walked close up to Karl +and picked up a small coil of rope from the deck, and yelling, “You +ain’t doin’ that right, d---- you,” made as though he were going to hit +him. The man at once set about the job in another way; but the second +mate’s temper was so ungovernable that he stepped up to Karl with an +expression in his eyes which I never saw before in any man’s, gave him +a terrific kick with his “letter-carrier” boots, and as the luckless +fellow swung round under the shock and impetus, Rarx drew back the +ponderous block which he still held, and which must have weighed nearly +fifteen pounds, and flung it full against the sailor’s face. I could +hear the thud distinctly, while with a sharp cry the big, powerful man +reeled across the deck and would have fallen prone had it not been for +the main fife-rail, against which he sunk gradually down, the blood +pouring from a wide gash in his nose and forehead, and rapidly forming +a little pond on the deck, while a crimson track stretched from where +he crouched to the second mate, who stood over by the rail with the +block raised above his head, as though challenging any other of the men +hard by to take up the row. Half the watch saw the affair, and if looks +could have annihilated him, Rarx would have dropped dead on the spot; +and I saw Broadhead and the Frenchman, who were putting an eye-splice +into the end of a wire rope, flush crimson and bend hard over their +work at this miserable act of cruelty. + +Meanwhile Karl remained where he fell, groaning, trying to stop the +flow of blood which was rapidly saturating his clothes; why the block +didn’t crack his head like a walnut will ever remain a mystery to me; +it would have broken the skull of any one but a Russian seaman. For +some few minutes there was a dead silence fore and aft; then Rarx +walked up to Karl, shook him heavily, and cried, “Now, then, get away +out o’ this, you ---- ---- ----; fine mess you’ve made on the deck. Go +wipe the blood out o’ yer eyes, and bring a swab and get this out the +deck, _and don’t you be long about it, neither_.” It struck me +that this was rather hard lines, having to mop up your own blood; but +in a few minutes more Karl recovered enough to totter forward, and when +he next appeared he had a bucket of sand and water and a broom, and at +the end of half an hour no trace of the assault remained save a large +gloomy stain, which will have to wear out. + +Later in the evening I remarked to MacFoy that this was the most +villanous and unprovoked piece of brutality that I ever imagined, +and that it was astonishing that a man who appeared to be such a +well-principled fellow as Rarx would do such a thing. “Well-principled, +is it? Huh,” was David’s comment; “peaceable enough to you aft I +guess, but you’d think different if you could see him dark nights on +the main-deck wearin’ ship. Did you ever see a Yankee second mate that +wasn’t a hound?” “I don’t know very much about them personally,” I +answered, “but they certainly have a hard name; the only other American +second mate whom I ever knew was on a foreign ship, where he had to +treat the sailors like men.” “Oh,” said MacFoy, “what do you think +o’ what you saw this afternoon?” “Well, about the only thing anybody +could say about it is that it was damnable,” I answered. Here the bosun +looked steadily at me and said, “If you’d seen what I have in these +ships for four years you’d think no more o’ that than steppin’ on a +cockroach.” + +At any rate, I’ll never forget the scene at the instant before the +block struck Karl’s face: about half the watch in the rigging looking +angrily down, the clumsy form of the Russian spinning round from the +kick, and the second mate standing over him, red with anger, in the +act of swinging the block well back to gather force for the blow. And +this is what is known as “discipline” in Yankee deep-water men! Well, +my only comment is, thank God that my wife wasn’t on deck to see it. +Latitude, 17° 45′ south; longitude, 38° 5′ west. + + ++June 18+ + +No one to-day made the least allusion to yesterday’s sinister deed +until this evening; Mr. Rarx was as bland as usual, and after supper +all that the skipper said was, “They tell me the second mate had a +little fun yesterday.” This indifference served to corroborate the +bosun’s remark about what he had seen in Yankee ships. I think that the +skipper wanted me to express my opinion and then he was going to tell +me his in a loud voice before the men; but I asked him if there wasn’t +a ship over to leeward, pointing abaft the beam; it served the purpose +very well, for he fetched up his lumbering, prehistoric telescope and +passed five minutes or so in looking for a vessel which wasn’t there, +so that he forgot all about Rarx and the Finn. + +To our great astonishment we were enabled by a little shift of wind +to fetch by the Abrolhos Islands and to keep on, as we were on the +port tack. It was a matter of great satisfaction to us all, and it +put the captain in quite a radiant humor. The wind has been pretty +well from the eastward of late, and even if it hasn’t been very +strong, it enabled us for the first time in many days to round in +the weather-braces and take advantage of what there was. Last night +was exactly like the weather during a summer northeaster on the New +England coast, one of those disagreeable spells which occur two or +three times in July and August that fill the hearts of the hotel +proprietors with dismay. A dense drizzle, increasing at times to heavy +showers, prevailed throughout the night, accompanied by a mist which +concealed everything one hundred yards away; while at times we had +short but severe puffs of wind, for which we had to stow the sky-sails. +At 9.30 in the evening a very strong breeze came out of the east; and, +increasing, the second mate, whose watch it was, went forward to haul +down the jib-topsail. So he left us on the poop in a heavy shower, and +in a few minutes we heard some sharp slatting, but paid no attention to +it, supposing that the jib-topsail-sheet had got adrift. Presently Mr. +Rarx came back breathing heavily, and remarked, “Very funny; I don’t +see how that sail could go like that.” “What’s wrong?” I asked. “Wrong? +Why, the main-top-gallant-stay-s’l’s clean gone out the bolt-ropes, and +in a minute we’ll have the old man up here tellin’ me ’twas my fault.” + +Sure enough, in a few moments the captain’s bushy face arose through +the companion-way, and he said without preliminary, “I suppose that was +the main-t’-gallant-stay-s’l that went, eh?” + +“Yes, sir,” answered Mr. Rarx, meekly, “I was----” + +“I suppose you were going to say that you was about to haul it down; +well, you needn’t bother to explain; if you hadn’t had it too flat +’twouldn’t have went; thirty years ago, men didn’t sign as second mate +till they knew how to trim a sail.” + +The blighting sarcasm with which he said this put the second mate’s +temper on edge again, and I expect that he’ll store this up against +the skipper for possible future use, for he is unquestionably a fine +sailor-man. + +It is rather remarkable that we have caught no fish lately, as the sea +in the vicinity of the Abrolhos Islands is the greatest fishing-ground +on the whole Brazilian seaboard. For twenty-four hours now we have +been on soundings with an average depth of forty fathoms; and while +the water is of a dirty green color, it is wonderfully phosphorescent, +though not quite equalling the water on the equator; still, when the +patent log was hauled in last evening at eight o’clock (it hung up and +down at that hour), the line was a rope of fire, dripping with silver +sparks, and long after it had been coiled away over a pin it continued +to emit brilliant flashes of phosphoric light. + +Our new main-topgallant-yard is coming along nicely. It is being +trimmed down from one of the double top-gallant-yards which the ship +used to carry; this is a rather remarkable fact, that if a vessel +carries double top-gallant-sails the yards will be larger in every +way than if they were single. It would be hard to conceive a more +gnome-like appearance than that presented by the carpenter to-day as he +was hewing at the spar with an adze, seen from a distance of about one +hundred feet; nearer, the illusion vanished. But his tall, peaked felt +hat, immensely broad face, open dungaree-jumper which refused to meet +over his globular person, and short, fat legs, lent him, when he rested +on his adze with wide-spread feet, a wonderfully elfin aspect. + +In a squall this morning I noticed that the mate wore for the first +time a tremendously thick garment of red cloth, which he called a +llama coat, being made of the wool or hair of that quadruped. It looked +something like a flannel shirt, but was not split up the sides, and +seemed to be as thick as a felt slipper. Mr. Goggins says that he +has never yet seen the rain which can penetrate it. Perhaps the most +remarkable thing about it is the fact that he has worn it for fifteen +years and intends to wear it fifteen more. How sailors hate oil-skins! +Their aversion to them is universal, and seems to be unreasonable. The +captain, for instance, has several ancient, heavy suits which he calls +his Cape Horn clothes. Whenever his presence is required for any length +of time in a heavy rain, he dons one of these suits and goes on deck in +a soft felt hat and a pair of slippers, only to return in fifteen or +twenty minutes with dripping garments, his slippers sobbing at every +step; in two minutes, though, he is arrayed in another suit, with the +same foot-gear, and marches on deck again to repeat this operation as +long as his dry clothes hold out. All this for dislike of oil-skins and +boots. Latitude, 19° 56′ south; longitude, 38° 15′ west. + + ++June 19+ + +Rio is said to possess a superb climate in the winter months; but +if it is finer than the weather which we are having now it must be +supernaturally beautiful. For twenty-four hours we have run before a +fresh northeast breeze, the only fault to be found with which is the +fact that, as we are now dead before the wind, the after-sails are the +only ones which draw, blanketing the others. The course this morning +was given to the quartermaster, southwest, which will not be altered +except in case of necessity till we have passed the Falklands. No +mention has been made, by the way, of our helmsmen, dignified by the +name of quartermasters. They do not really hold this rank, as they +are merely sailors who have been picked out by the mates as the best +helmsmen, and receive no more wages than able seamen. The idea of this +is to have only certain men to steer the ship, that they may thoroughly +understand her under all circumstances. It is curious to see how much +less tanned these men are than the others, owing to the protection of +the wheel-house. + +The old mate continues to crawl growlingly about the decks, grumbling +at various actual and phantasmagorical afflictions. His mode of +progression is a sort of creeping prowl, as he thrusts his face into +every nook and cranny, with a hundred wrinkles in his great, flabby +nose, as though he were continuously assailed with disagreeable odors. +He hazes the men a great deal more than the second mate does, though I +do not think that he is particularly courageous; a flock of Gogginses +might, like jackals, prove dangerous, but singly, his valor I’m sure +would dwindle at close quarters. Being a poor seaman, the men have no +respect at all for him, and in the presence of the skipper he bawls at +the sailors and makes a feint of hitting them, glancing at the old man +for approval, as he rolls about, exhorting them in his most rasping +voice to “Come now, git a move on.” + +Mr. Rarx gets several times more work out of his watch, for he knows +how to handle the men; and as he has recovered his equanimity he +continues to exhibit his claims to being a humorist. His men were +hoisting the yards up taut in the second dog-watch yesterday, and when +they came to the maintop-gallant-halliards, they burst into a fine +chanty, “Whiskey”; then when they had finished with the main-yards they +began on the foretop-gallant-halliards, but without a song. The yard +seemed to stick a bit; and as sailors can always do twice the work +with the inspiration of a song, Mr. Rarx called out, “Give us a little +more of that whiskey, fellows”; which so tickled the fellows’ fancies +that some of them shook in their extremity of mirth, though a sailor +must always laugh at a mate’s joke. If the second mate were not such a +bad-tempered man he would not be an unpleasant companion, for he talks +well and is always very neat; but his recent villanous deed deprives +his conversation of most of its erstwhile attractions, while he appears +to think absolutely nothing of it. + +Louis Jacquin is indisputably the best sailor in the forecastle, though +young Broadhead, the New Yorker, is by no means a bad second. Louis’s +marlinspike seamanship is really beautiful; and it turns out, as I +expected, that he has served a long period in the French navy. Strange +how sailors shift back and forth from man-of-war to merchantman. This +man has good principles, too; for when the little bosun Rumps began to +blackguard the skipper the other day, saying, “I’d like to have a crack +at you ashore,” looking up at the poop, the Frenchman said, “Zat ees +not right”; nor was this intended for me to hear. Louis made a queer +mistake the other day. He was telling Broadhead about the attractions +of Paris, and finally asked him, “Have you evair seen Père la Chère?” +“What’s that?” said Broadhead. “Père la Chère, zee cemetarie,” answered +Jacquin. It was an odd mistake for a Frenchman to make. + +The captain is in fine feather now that we are doing well, but is +annoyed that we do not meet more steamers. I never saw a skipper so +anxious to be spoken and reported as Captain Scruggs; and last evening +when a large steamer passed us bound south, probably to Rio, he almost +wept because it was dark. + +One of our two cabin cats has vanished; it was the “coon-cat,” and +after a long search to-day we were forced to the belief that it has +fallen overboard. It is hard luck, and its companion, the Maltese, is +inconsolable. The captain seems really cut up about it, for he has all +a sailor’s fancy for animals. One of Mr. Goggins’s traits, however, is +his cruelty to the poor, ugly alley-cat which belongs to him,--another +illustration of the sort of creature that he is. Latitude, 22° 30′ +south; longitude, 39° 25′ west. + + ++June 20+ + +At nine o’clock this morning I sighted a vessel’s upper canvas ahead, +far down in the southwest; she seemed to be a bark, and as such I +reported her to the skipper. The breeze was from the eastward and +blowing fresh, so that every sail was drawing to the utmost, and we +were doing nearly eleven knots at the time. Slowly we drew up on the +vessel, slowly but certainly, and at eleven o’clock she proved to be a +ship, and we concluded that she was one of the Englishmen which sailed +a week ahead of us: the “Balclutha,” from London, the “Merioneth,” from +Swansea, and the “Peleus,” from Hamburg, all bound to San Francisco, +and the “Annesley,” from Cardiff for Portland, Oregon. It was quite +probable that we would fall in with each other hereabouts. In spite +of the power of our glasses, however, it was impossible to tell for +a long while whether she was a Yankee or a Britisher, until all at +once she yawed, when the sun reflected from her sails showed that they +were of cotton, so that the chances were in favor of her hailing from +the States. We paid no further attention to her, though, till after +dinner, when, by that time having raised her hull out of the water, +we perceived that she carried a stunsail on the starboard side! Here +was a spectacle as unusual as a blue moon in these days of scanty rigs +and short crews! Still, in spite of her extra cloths, we overhauled +her, and soon made the additional discovery that, like ourselves, she +crossed three sky-sail-yards. (What a graceful, slender look they give +to a vessel!) Captain Scruggs at this instant emerged from the cabin +with his ancient, feeble-looking, clattering, brass telescope under his +arm, levelled it at the flying stranger, bracing the long, tottering +tubes against the top-gallant-backstays, gazed at her for a full +minute, and announced her name,--the “Judas Dowes.” Now, this vessel +sailed from New York for San Diego six days before we did, and though +she has a fine record as a fast sailer, lo! we have overhauled her +on the fortieth day. I am under the impression that Captains Scruggs +and Platt had a wager as to who would pass the equator first; and as +the “Dowes” undoubtedly crossed ahead of us, our skipper was in quite +a bad humor when he found who the stranger was. We asked him if he +couldn’t be mistaken, to which he disdainfully answered, “Mistaken? Of +course not; wasn’t I master of her four years before I took the ‘Hosea +Higgins’?” “Does Platt recognize us, do you suppose?” I asked him then. +“Most certainly he does,” testily replied the captain; “who wouldn’t +know them upper topsails?” And in truth the “Higgins” could be picked +out among a score of other vessels simply by her long topmasts. There +is every prospect of passing the “Judas Dowes” in the night, for at the +moment, 4 +P.M.+, we cannot be more than seven or eight miles +apart. + +Many people, even those identified with affairs nautical, will be +surprised to learn that there are still fully half a dozen of our ships +which make a regular practice of carrying stunsails whenever they will +draw. Those vessels which I am certain follow this plan are the “Paul +Revere,” the “Judas Dowes,” and the “Indiana.” + +The sail which the “Dowes” carried this afternoon probably doesn’t +add half a knot to her speed; but some of the ships mentioned carry +such an extra spread of canvas as to very decidedly augment their +sailing powers. For instance, Mr. Rarx said, “While I was second +mate of the ‘Paul Revere’ awhile ago, we had stuns’ls that added a +thousand square yards to the ship’s canvas and put two knots on her +speed.” Some seafaring people of the present day do not believe that +fifty years ago our famous clippers carried royal-stunsails, a leading +maritime publication in New York saying a year ago, “We never heard +of a ship-master foolish enough to carry royal-stunsails.” Now this +is a mistake, for Mr. Goggins has positively asserted that about +thirty years ago he was in a bark for some months that set these +auxiliary sails, the vessel’s name, according to the mate, being the +“Chickloa,” so called after a large coffee plantation in Guatemala. Far +more conclusive proof, however, is to be found in “Two Years before +the Mast,” in which Dana, always minutely accurate, mentioned the +royal-stunsails set on the ship “Alert,” in which he returned to Boston +from California. + +Last evening at the pumps I had some interesting yarns from Murphy, who +is a round, jolly, chubby individual, very active and good-natured. The +second mate says that this fellow is not at all a bad lot, and that +his only fault lies in his inclination to be a little “fresh.” Murphy +commenced about the American bark “St. James,” in which he went out +from New York to Shanghai in ninety-seven days three years ago. “Oh, +but she’s just a daisy, she is! Why, she’s a square-rigged yacht. And +go, I tell you honest, I saw her log fifteen knots on that voyage under +the tops’ls and fores’l between Tristan d’Acunha and the Cape; and if +ever you want to sail with a nice man, you ship with Cap’n Banfield; +there’s no better.” As a matter of fact, the “St. James,” which is a +very large vessel to be bark-rigged, being of fifteen hundred tons, +is the most yacht-like square-rigger under the stars and stripes, and +a friend of mine who went out to Shanghai in her on this very voyage +which Murphy mentioned, in speaking from a passenger’s stand-point, +corroborated every word of the sailor’s, and said that it would be +impossible to find a more agreeable man to sail with than Captain +Banfield, who for some time was in the large Boston schooner yacht +“Alert.” + +In contradistinction to this fast passage of the “St. James” friend +Murphy spoke as follows: “The last time I went round the Horn was in +the Yankee ship ‘Centennial,’ and we were a hundred and ninety-nine +days from New York to ’Frisco. We had a terrible time off Cape Horn, +and ran back twice to the Falklands for repairs, and at last a third +time we bore away for Montevideo. We passed close to Stanley this time, +too, but there was a heavy gale on and we dasn’t try for that place +again. As we ran by, though, we saw an American ship tryin’ to weather +the Billy Rocks at the entrance to Stanley Harbor, and we passed so +close to her that I heard the cap’n say as how he could see the sailors +in the riggin’ with the glasses. We afterward found out ’twas the ‘City +of Philadelphia.’” Then I remembered the tragedy of this ship. She +sailed from Philadelphia for San Francisco a little over two years ago. +Her captain had just bought her for himself, and she had on board a +passenger travelling for his health. The vessel was disabled off Cape +Horn, bore away for Stanley for repairs, missed stays off the harbor, +struck on the terrible Billy Rocks in a gale of wind, and every soul on +board perished. + +The last Yankee square-rigger to lay her bones upon the beach was the +“Commodore,” which ran on Malden Island in the Pacific, in 5° south and +155° west, about a year ago, while on a voyage from Honolulu to New +York with sugar. All hands saved. + +Murphy, like Louis, is a man-o’-war’s man, and said that the last +government vessel in which he served was the “Olympia.” “Oh, Lord, +she’s a terror for work,” he added. “I’ll bet she can’t beat this +packet in that line,” said one of the men. “She can’t, eh? I’d just +like to see you try her once. This ship’s a playground compared to +her.” This, in part, bears out what Mr. Rarx said, that this is one of +the hardest ships for work that he has ever seen. _If sailors get +enough to eat_, though, by far the best way to run a ship is to +keep them hard at work continuously; they will always be in far better +humor, and when they turn in they will think more about sleep than +about imaginary grievances, which foremast hands are very prone to do. +Latitude 25° 12′ south; longitude, 42° 14′ west. + + ++June 21+ + +Oh, simple, childish Captain Platt of the “Judas Dowes!” This morning +when day broke we looked in vain for this vessel, for behold the watery +expanse void of objects fashioned by the hand of man save ourselves. We +had confidently expected to see the “Dowes” upon our quarter, where, +in truth, she would have been if Captain Platt hadn’t shown the white +feather, sheering off under cover of the darkness and secreting himself +beyond the horizon. + +How odd it is to meet an acquaintance away down here near the end +of Brazil! The last time that we saw the “Judas Dowes” she lay on +the opposite side of the pier from the “Higgins,” both ships having +just come in from sea; and lo! we renew our intimacy far down here, +thousands of miles from home, below the southern tropic. And a sort +of mutual good-fellowship springs up between us, for are we both not +going to fling down the gauntlet to the dreadful Horn in the darkness +and gloom of midwinter? Everything is so very smooth and sunny and +cheerful here at present, that it is hard to believe that there are, no +doubt, at this moment, giant four-masters struggling in the grip of an +Antarctic sou’wester, hove to, with a tarpaulin in the after-rigging, +or driving before it for their lives, buried to the rails in those +great Cape Horn surges which roll so grandly onward in their endless +journey around the globe. + +Turning, then, from such violent scenes, it is doubly pleasant to +be wafted thus along over a motionless sea, rippled by the fresh +northeasterly breeze that blows us over two hundred miles of water +every day. It is warm, too, for this latitude at this season, 77° +at noon, for the sun to-day reached the most northerly point of his +declination, and at four o’clock this morning, at Greenwich, he entered +the constellation of Cancer, ushering in the first day of the southern +winter. + +Our skipper has formed the very obnoxious habit of immersing beer and +Apollinaris bottles in the galvanized iron bucket which holds our +drinking-water in the pantry, for the purpose of cooling them off; so +that we were shocked one day to observe several labels floating about +in the water, having added to it glue and other equally unpleasant +foreign substances. Fortunately, the weather will soon be cold now, +which will, I hope, put an end to these objectionable proceedings. + +Every Sunday thus far Captain Scruggs has blossomed out in a white +“biled” shirt, with a standing collar turned over in front, by reason +of which he suffers torments throughout that day, until about three +in the afternoon, when indications of a sudden metamorphosis begin to +appear. First he begins to move restlessly in his chair, elevates and +depresses his chin with great force, inserts his hand inside the band +and tugs away at it, and finally, unable to stand it any longer, off +comes the offending collar with a great wrench, while he passionately +nods and revolves his massive head, to free himself of all restraint, +as though he had been in a pillory. + +It is a curious fact that hardly a single ship-master will say anything +in favor of Nelson; personally, I have never yet met one who would +admit that this greatest of sea-fighters was better or worse than any +other naval commander, for all of whom they appear to have a silent +disdain. A sea-captain usually takes as his model Napoleon or Cæsar or +even the present emperor of Germany; our skipper reveres the memory +of Napoleon and considers him the embodiment of everything grand and +exalted; as for Nelson, he won’t even deign to talk about him, and +brusquely dismissed the subject to-day by saying that Nelson didn’t +even have much command or influence over his men! + +There was a vast deal of shouting and confusion on board all day, +occasioned by the shifting of the old sails to the new, strong suit for +Cape Horn; as the captain said, “Now we’re gettin’ ready for business.” +It is the general idea that old sails, nearly worn out, are bent for +the bad weather, whereas the very newest of all are sent aloft, for old +canvas would melt like wet paper in a really hard squall. Therefore the +ship now glitters in a brand-new suit of clothes and presents quite a +fine appearance; a yachtsman, however, would contemplate with dismay +sundry streaks of mildew and tar-stains on the main-sail, though this +is the first time that it has ever been stretched on a yard. So long +are our topmasts that the big, upper main-topsail has a double row +of reef-points in it; all the uppers are three times as deep as the +lowers, which seem but strips of tape in comparison; when this vessel +has nothing set but the lower topsails, it must verily be a howling +gale. Latitude, 27° 50′ south; longitude, 44° 30′ west. + + ++June 22+ + +Good-by, sweet north wind! Farewell, bright, blue skies and balmy +weather! We turned out this morning to find the ship ploughing into a +short, severe sea, heading south-southeast, with nothing set above the +topsails and a strong wind whistling from southwest, or dead ahead. +The change came last evening in the second dog-watch; it was hard upon +eight o’clock, and the mate was telling me something about the fit +of the upper mizzentop-sail, when, looking ahead, he suddenly cried, +“By jimminy, look at that cloud; here comes the river Plate,” and ran +forward, bawling, “Let go the sky-sail-halliards!” Looking quickly +toward the southwest I beheld a very wonderful sight; for, extending +from west to east, about twenty degrees above the horizon, was a +strange, narrow band of black cloud which came rushing toward us at +headlong speed, with a gray bank of mist beneath it extending to the +horizon. This mass had apparently risen by the exercise of some magic, +for fifteen minutes previously there was not the least indication of +it in the sky. Even as we looked, another ribbon of sable cloud formed +at an angle of forty-five degrees to the first, and cornucopia-shaped +(though not vertical like a tornado), with the big end toward us, came +charging down upon us with all our kites aloft. + +The mate’s yell brought the skipper on deck, who sang out instantly, +“Get the sky-sails and royals in as quick as you can, Mr. Goggins. Keep +her off there; hard up.” This last to the helmsman; for in an instant +our northerly breeze had been nipped off, and the wind was now from +the west; therefore, as the yards were squared, there was a great +thrashing about of new canvas. Nothing parted, though, and by 8.30 we +were pretty well straightened out, but were surprised an hour later to +see the wind let go a good deal, while the ship came up to her course +again, southwest. But the captain, glancing at a gray mist to windward, +muttered, “There’s dirt in that yet”; and sure enough, at five this +morning we had our first taste of nasty weather, and breakfasted in a +severe squall which played tenpins with the dishes. Once more it eased +up before dinner and we set the fore- and mizzentop-gallant-sails; but +while the skipper was enjoying his postprandial siesta, the second mate +came below and, poking first his head and then his shoulders into the +cabin in that peculiarly cautious manner of mates desiring to speak to +the old man, aroused him with, “There’s too much wind coming for the +t’-ga’nt-s’ls, sir”; to which the captain answered, “All right; tie +’em up,” jumping on deck, whither we followed him. It is remarkable +how quickly sailors rouse themselves from insensibility to alert +action; only a moment previously the captain was breathing heavily in +a deep sleep, yet no sooner did Mr. Rarx touch him and make the above +observation than the answer came instantly, as though the skipper were +talking in his sleep. + +The wind when we reached the deck was rapidly increasing and had +knocked us off to south again, with a bad, greasy look to windward, +and it was raining heavily. The men were hauling on the lee +maintop-gallant-clew-line and buntlines, while Mr. Rarx was settling +away the halliards and swearing that never, since Noah took charge of +the ark, was there a slower gang on a ship’s deck, as he ordered four +hands aloft to put the gaskets on the sail, the wind blowing their +oil-skin jackets up over their heads as they trotted up the ratlines, +exposing them to a hard drenching in the pelting rain. + +During the forenoon watch we sighted a sail, which was doubtless +the “Judas Dowes” again. It is astonishing how enormously a slight +elevation will add to the visibility of objects at sea. From the deck, +for instance, this vessel was sunk to her royals, and at the moment it +was utterly impossible to tell whether she was a ship or a bark; but by +mounting to the top of the wheel-house, only seven feet above the deck, +all three of her upper topsails were in plain sight. + +We saw Louis Jacquin fly into a regular Frenchman’s passion yesterday +afternoon while shifting the sails. He was at the lee upper +mizzen-topsail yard-arm, putting the finishing touches on some gear, +when the second mate shouted up to him, “All ready to sheet home?” To +which he answered, “All ready, sair”; evidently misunderstanding the +question; for no sooner did those below man the sheet on which Louis +was seated than crack! went that individual’s black head against the +under side of the yard, and he was then thrown off to leeward, only +preventing himself from going over for good by a piece of wonderful +agility. Oh, what a rage he was in! He thought that Mr. Rarx did it +intentionally, and the atmosphere smoked with foreign imprecations; +and even at that distance we could see his angry blue eyes (he has +china-blue eyes and raven hair) snapping and popping away as he roared +down, “Eh! well, sair; what is zee mattair below? Do you want to heave +me ovair side wiz your sheet?” and it was several hours until he +recovered his composure. + +Our new maintop-gallant-yard is all but finished and has been secured +under the starboard rail till needed. A little remains still to be +done to it, and these finishing touches the goblin carpenter insists +on bestowing upon it in spite of the showers of spray; and it is +an amusing sight to watch him pop out of his shop, snip off a few +shavings, working like a demon for thirty or forty seconds, and +then pop into his den again to avoid a sea. By reason of all this +spray flying and damp weather, I have donned my Cape Horn red-leather +slippers purchased from the slop-chest and said to be impervious to +water. But they defy comfort equally well, being as inflexible as Cape +Horn itself, and are spangled inside with perfect little galaxies of +wooden pegs, so that I fain would have boiled them as the pilgrim +did his pease. If man were provided with hoofs instead of feet, it +is conceivable that he might contrive to become accustomed to these +slippers; as it is, I cannot understand it. + +Having crossed the thirtieth parallel, we are now “off” the river Plate +in the sailor’s sense, who always speaks of being off the Plate when +between 30° and 40° south. At least one gale is usually experienced +before these ten degrees of latitude have been crossed, though ships +generally reach the thirty-fifth degree before anything happens. +Latitude, 30° 25′ south; longitude, 45° 33′ west. + + ++June 23+ + +A pampero! By heaven’s thunder, we are battling in the vortex of one +of these river Plate howlers, with a high, confused sea, and the ship +plunging heavily into it, almost denuded of canvas! Yesterday at 4.30 +a reef was tied in the foretop-sail, as the wind showed signs of +rapidly freshening; but there was a lull from five until midnight, +when it began to breeze up again, and when we went on deck at 7.30 +this morning, behold! a strong gale coming out of the west-southwest +and the ship, under a reefed maintop-sail and foresail, was pounding +considerably in a very ugly sea, but not taking much green water +aboard. By the way, when a ship is under an upper maintop-sail, it is, +of course, to be understood that all three lower topsails are set as +well; and a “reefed fore- and maintop-sails” means only the uppers, as +the lowers are too narrow for reef-points. + +Wonderful to relate, there astern of us at daybreak was the redoubtable +“Judas Dowes,” with the same canvas set as ourselves. We knew her +by her stunsail-boom, and she was apparently gaining on us and was +making better weather of it than we were. I never heard the wind so +shriek and roar in a ship’s rigging as it did this morning, and it +whipped the tops off the seas and sent them flying aboard in storms +of whistling spray, which seemed to cut the face like powdered glass. +It kept on breezing, too, and at 9.30 the old man ordered another +reef tied in the maintop-sail. Thus far the damage from wind or sea +was limited to the injury of one man, Louis Jacquin, who was thrown +across the forecastle-head against an anchor-fluke with great force, +badly lacerating his left leg, and incapacitating him from other work +than steering. And still the wind increased, and at half-past eleven +the skipper estimated its velocity at fifty-five nautical miles an +hour. At noon I started to go on deck to bring down a book which I had +left in the wheel-house; and, without stopping to put on oil-skins, I +got into a leather jacket and went up out of the companion door. The +captain was leaning against the lee side of the wheel-house, and I +was about to join him, when he called out, “Hey, don’t you see that +sea,--jump!” I looked over my shoulder and beheld a huge hill of water +rising higher and higher alongside, in that peculiar, lazy manner of +very large waves. Still, trusting to my own judgment, I did not think +that it would break aboard, when there was a crash like a broadside +of artillery, relieving me of any further suspense, and I was swept +completely off my feet (and this on the poop), only saving myself +from bringing to against the rail by a lucky clutch of the lazarette +hatch-house. Then swash came the water back again, and I was once more +half buried in the cold brine; but, watching a chance, the skipper +and I shot across to the companion door, opened it, and were assailed +with the cry, “The cabin’s flooded,” which rang out above the gale. +It was even so. The great sea had stove the forward skylight on the +cabin-house, and had deluged the dining-room with hundreds of gallons +of salt-water. It is impossible to conceive of such a wreck as we +encountered below. The poor little gentle Malay was leaning against +the table almost in tears, trying to keep his feet under him, while +Sammie was doing noble work with a bucket, baling out the water which +was swirling about with the rolling, to a clinking chorus of plates, +cruets, thick glass tumblers (as indestructible as granite), knives, +forks, and spoons, which had been swept off the table when the water +broke full upon it. Ten minutes later our dinner would have been +reposing on it; and fancy the calamity in that event! But it is too +dreary to contemplate. Indeed, the dinner was delayed nearly an hour, +and we had neither soup nor dessert,--the first occasion on which we +ever knew these courses to be omitted at sea; the weather must truly +be violent when it so happens. But we had plenty of good scorching hot +coffee; and, it might be asked, why is it that during the heaviest +weather at sea the coffee is always boiling, while in one’s private +house it is only after a protracted warfare with the cook that the +coffee comes in at a higher temperature than lukewarm? + +Well, the wind kept on blowing still harder, and at two in the +afternoon had attained the fury of a full-grown pampero. And the sea! +Oh, how it boiled and seethed like frothy cream! And how the wind +screamed aloft in the squalls! Fortunately, they came at comparatively +long intervals, with sunshine between; but while one lasted it was +nearly impossible to catch sight of a square yard of dark water, for +the surface was as white as milk; and the crests of the tall seas were +fairly wrenched off and shot through the air with terrific force, the +atmosphere being full of flying spoondrift which the toughest skin +couldn’t face, while the horizon was everywhere filled with ponderous, +breaking seas. Our motion all day was very severe: first a heavy roll +which dipped the lee rail under, while the water boiled up to the lee +fore-dead-eyes; then the awkward weather roll down the windward side of +the sea; and finally a deep, headlong dive into the valley, with a wall +of water on either hand. The skipper thought that the average height +of the larger seas was about forty feet from crest to trough,--not so +large as the Cape Horn rollers; but it must be borne in mind that this +was a very quick, vicious sea, with not more than three hundred feet +between the crests, so that solid water was bound to come aboard even +on the poop. + +Well, well, it was a magnificent sight; and as we are now accompanied +by a cheerful flock of Cape pigeons, everything has a true Southern +Ocean look. My wife was not in the least frightened during the day; +but she had such a good grounding on our first voyage that it is not +astonishing. We made no departure in the twenty-four hours but two +degrees of latitude, which was extremely good work, considering that we +were by the wind in a pampero. Latitude, 32° 25′ south; longitude, 45° +33′ west. + + ++June 24+ + +In the morning watch to-day the gale broke after blowing for +twenty-four hours, the main-sail being set at four o’clock, during +which process both mates were knocked down flat on the deck by an +unexpected sea while they were standing by the main-hatch. At eight +this morning the wind had moderated to a light, fitful breeze, and we +wallowed all the forenoon in a high, broken sea; indeed, throughout +the night we could get but little sleep owing to the severe rolling. +Glancing to leeward as soon as we appeared on deck, there was our old +friend the “Dowes” on our beam, distant a little more than a mile, +bobbing about under her top-gallant-sails as we were, though she +carried her cross-jack and we the spanker. She made, indeed, a fine +picture as she forged sullenly ahead, showing a glistening sheath of +copper as she divided the slopes of the larger seas, with a glint +of brass from the poop when the sun peered out from between light +showers. At nine o’clock we perceived several agitated figures close +to her wheel, and presently a string of flags blew out and were run +up to her gaff-end, and quite a little conversation ensued. The first +signal which Platt made was DWV, signifying “How are you?” This we +answered with BRC, which is to say, “All well.” Then followed in rapid +succession, “When did you sail?” “When did you pass the equator?” “A +pleasant voyage,” to all of which we replied with the various flag +combinations which spelled the words; each then dipped the ensign +three times, and the interview was brought to a close. It was very +interesting thus conversing with the sly wretch, and it is singular +how much interest foremast hands always take in such proceedings, +carefully following every shift of flag, some of the older sailors +always professing to be able to read the signals, often telling their +messmates the most absurd things, which they implicitly believe. + +I never saw so great a change in any one as came over Captain Scruggs +yesterday during the gale. He was as quiet and retiring as the most +bashful of individuals, and in fact exhibited an amount of anxiety +surprising in so aggresive and domineering a person. Nearly all +masters of sailing ships, as noted before, are nervous in bad weather; +and in truth, a gale of wind at sea is something to make one quiet +and mindful of man’s trivial strength when measured against the +mighty powers of nature. But the captain was unnaturally reserved and +almost crushed, and asked me half a dozen times what I thought of +it; while at 2.30 in the afternoon, standing on the weather side of +the wheel-house, he put his face close to my ear and shouted, “It’s +blowing harder than ever,” with a rising inflection, as though awaiting +my inexperienced opinion. This morning, however, he was his same old +self again, drenching Sammie with heavy showers of profanity on the +least provocation. In spite of his depression yesterday, the skipper +gave vent to one of his quaint sayings. At the time he had on a cap, +which, though not tied under his chin, resisted the utmost violence of +the squalls; on commenting upon this to him, he cried, “They’re great +things; you ought to have one; ’twould stop on as long as your pants.” + +Some of the sailors are beginning to grumble even so soon as this. I +had a talk with old Kelly this afternoon at the pumps and in a low +voice he let fall his opinions on various subjects. Now, this man +has been well educated and talks evenly, without effort, and the +inflections and tone of his voice indicate that by birth his natural +sphere in life is a good deal higher than that of a common sailor. +“Well,” he remarked. “I’ve been in square-riggers for thirty-three +years now, but I never did see one like this for yelling and cursing; +why, they knock all the sense out of a man’s head the way they shout. +And work, you talk about galleys, but there never was a gang of slaves +driven as we are.” This must be taken with the usual amount of salt, +which should always be liberally sprinkled over the conversation of the +average sailor; still, when a second mate acknowledges that the men +are hard pushed, there is not much doubt about its being true. Kelly is +right, though, about the shouting of Captain Scruggs; if there wasn’t +so much sea-room I believe that we would all be deafened by this time; +and the worst part of it is that this sort of thing is absolutely +useless. I have frequently known the skipper to work the men into such +a state that they were paralyzed and unable to execute the simplest +order. + +At the present moment, sitting in the cabin, we can hear the wind +beginning to sing again in the rigging, and a second gale would not +surprise us in the least, for there is, in addition, a heavy swell +rolling up from the southwest, all of which cannot be the result of our +late gale. + +This roaring of the wind aloft when it is blowing very hard is +resolvable into several different tones: the heavy shrouds taking +the base, the somewhat lighter backstays resembling the barytone, +the halliards and braces standing for the tenor, while the buntlines +and clew-lines take the part of a piercing falsetto, as shrill as +a thousand piccolos; the whole blending into a resonant chorus of +orchestral power, with grand, majestic crescendi like the double open +diapason of a cathedral organ. Latitude 32° 35′ south; longitude, 44° +50′ west. + + ++June 25+ + +The question which agitates us at this moment is, are we going to +have another pampero? for it is breezing up fast from west-southwest, +the same old quarter. We didn’t have much wind this forenoon, but by +dinner-time it freshened so that at one o’clock the skipper said to +the mate in tones of despair, “Get that upper mizzentop-sail in, Mr. +Goggins”; and no sooner were the men down on deck again than came +the order, “Reef the foretop-sail.” All hands were on deck, and the +foreshrouds were instantly filled with the yellow figures scurrying +aloft, and in half an hour the ship was once more under snug canvas. + +At four yesterday afternoon, chancing to look under the foot of +the main-sail, my wife and I saw a large four-masted bark under +top-gallant-sails bound north and steering in such a way as to pass +within easy signalling distance; and the skipper lost no time in +appearing on deck in answer to a summons, at once ordering the ship’s +number to be made. On came the stranger, and in a few minutes we could +see that she had lost her mizzen-royal, yard, mast, and everything. +She was a very ugly vessel, narrow and dingy, built of wood, with +a curious stern like nothing we had ever seen before, and no more +apparent sheer than a billiard-table. Very soon she was abreast of us, +but no answering flags fluttered from her gaff, and we wondered what +manner of ship this was thus to ignore signals. We thought that she was +going to pass us by completely unnoticed, when there crawled feebly +to her spanker-gaff the green, white, and red banner of Italy. The +meaning of this manœuvre was that this ill-starred old ship, which was +evidently an ancient steamer, was totally destitute of flags bar her +national ensign; and, having no signals, she would, of course, possess +no code-book, and therefore our number, standing out stiffly a hundred +feet from the deck, would be quite unintelligible to her. + +No sooner was this ship hull down astern than another one arose +ahead. We were below at the time, and when we reached the deck we +were almost abreast of each other. Our name was still flying from the +signal-halliards, while the other had hoisted FGH, meaning “What is +your longitude?” We gratified her wish and she doubtless got our name +all right, but refused to tell us hers; but, dipping her ensign, went +surging heavily along on her homeward-bound course. A long time passed +before we could make out what her ensign was, for it was a flag seldom +seen on the ocean highways, and the mate had the honor of being the +first to distinguish it. It was the flag of Chile: a broad horizontal +band of red below, the upper half being divided into two squares, white +and blue, with a large white star in the upper left-hand corner. She, +too, was a wooden ship, but not so villanous-looking as the Italian, +and carried double top-gallant-sails on the fore and main. We all hope +that she’ll report us, for we have sailed through thirty-six degrees +of latitude without having sighted any vessel which would be likely to +report us on arrival. How happy our relatives and friends will be when +they see our report in the ship-news columns by that steamer just north +of the line, “Spoken, ship ‘Hosea Higgins.’ Scruggs, New York for San +Francisco, June 6. Latitude, 2° north; longitude, 28° west!” + +To-day at noon we were almost exactly in the latitude of Cape Agulhas, +so that the Horn is thirteen hundred miles south of the southernmost +extremity of the Eastern Hemisphere, a difference of latitude greater +than that which separates Halifax and Key West, or New York and Havana. +Latitude, 34° 46′ south; longitude, 45° 20′ west. + + ++June 26+ + +At quarter to five yesterday the skipper, thinking that we would do +better on the other tack, wore ship at that hour in half a gale of +wind. There was a deal of excitement and bad language on the captain’s +part, which so rattled the helmsman that we were thirty-five minutes +in wearing, about eighteen or twenty minutes being our average. There +was a heavy sea running at the time, too, and in spite of cautions my +wife insisted upon sitting on top of the after-cabin skylight during +the process of wearing, and when we began to roll heavily when before +the wind and sea, the expected happened; for my wife fetched away +and would have had a very severe fall if the captain hadn’t grasped +her tightly and held on. I tried to reach her in time, but lost my +foothold, sat down vehemently, shot straightaway across the smooth +deck-house with incredible speed, and brought to with a smash against +the deck-house monkey-rail. I kept astonishingly cool in the flight +across, and even selected where to put my feet when I should reach the +rail; indeed, it was an illustration of the theory that if a man is +not paralyzed with horror at some frightful spectacle the presence of +danger sharpens his wits, and his mind becomes clear and calculating. +Immediately after wearing, the captain ordered the main-sail reefed, +and at eight in the evening a single reef was tied in the maintop-sail, +the weather being very squally, with much rain and hail. + +To-day dawned with a light west-southwest wind and a clear sky, with +a long, southerly swell which made us roll dreadfully all night. At +nine o’clock we broke off to the southward of northwest; so the captain +wore round once more, and now we are making south by west half west, +Skippers have an odd way sometimes of saying south _by_ west, +accenting strongly the “by” as a precaution against mistaking the +course for south-southwest, if slurred over quickly. + +We thought that we had finished with the “Judas Dowes,” but no; +this morning at dawn she was in plain view, five miles astern, and +overhauled us so rapidly that when we went on the other tack she had +neared us to three miles. No sooner had she observed us in the act of +wearing than up went her main-sail and cross-jack, and she followed +suit; there is no gainsaying the fact that the “Dowes” is the faster +ship on a wind, though free things are reversed. By standing so long on +the starboard tack through Wednesday’s gale and some heavy winds since +we found, when braced up on the port tack last night, that the cargo +had shifted slightly, and that on this leg the ship had a tendency +to roll to windward. The captain said that the cargo hadn’t actually +shifted, but had listed, as sailors call it, the effect on the ship +being perceptible to no one but a seaman. + +Mr. Rarx told me the other day that he spent two years on the West +African coast, between Sierra Leone and Lagos, aboard of an English +supply steamer; and that while there he saw what, in his estimation, +was the loftiest-rigged vessel that ever floated. “You can talk about +your talkabouts,” said he, “but that English man-o’-war had four yards +above her main-royal. I’m tellin’ you a fact,” he added. + +Well, we are dawdling away day after day up here in about 35° south +instead of clipping down past the Plate the other side of 40°. The +captain says that after we have passed that parallel until we reach +50° south we will probably have a number of fine days, clear and +exhilarating, with magnificent sunsets. We have had some good views +of the Magellan Clouds lately, as the sky at night in the south has +been quite clear. They are strange-looking things, with somewhat +the appearance of the nebula in Andromeda. Latitude, 34° 39′ south; +longitude, 46° 26′ west. + + ++June 27+ + +Very strong west to west-southwest winds, and the vessel laboring +in a broken sea in corkscrew dives under single-reefed fore- and +maintop-sail. It was fine up to midnight, when it clouded over and +commenced to blow, so that we had to shorten sail; and at eight this +morning, the ship diving deeply, the upper mizzentop-sail was stowed +altogether. The “Dowes” made a valiant attempt to hold on to us; but I +think that we can carry on better in heavy winds, for when day broke +she had vanished astern. + +Last evening at the pumps Olsen and I talked together for the first +time. He is a very decent fellow and the quietest man in the ship. “I +never did see anythin’ like the shoutin’ here,” he observed, the first +thing. “Oh, blow that,” quoth Murphy; “it goes in one ear and out the +other.” “That’s all right,” answered Olsen, “but I ain’t used to it; +and every time the old man hollers me heart’s in me mouth. If I ever +sign in an American ship again it’ll be the ‘S. P. Hitchcock.’ When me +and Coleman come round from Honolulu in her little while ago, we did +more work in one watch there than we do here all day, and there wasn’t +any yellin’ at all. You never saw Cap’n Gates on the main-deck neither; +he knew his business. On the whole, I like British vessels about the +best of any, except the way they carry on is fearful, and bein’ iron +ships they can stand it. I sailed in the British ship ‘Dominion’ once +from Barry to San Francisco, and I never did see such sail-carryin’. +As for the main-deck, you couldn’t put your foot on it in bad weather +without fear of goin’ overboard. One night in the Pacific, about 45° +south, in a southerly gale, there came a crack, and away went all three +t’-gallant-masts overboard, all from carryin’ on.” + +Olsen’s remark about Captain Gates’s knowing his business was a cut at +Captain Scruggs for prowling around the deck forward at all hours of +the day and night. Sailors hate this; and while a ship-master has the +right to scour his vessel fore and aft if he sees fit, he is generally +never seen forward of the galley, unless something special has happened. + +After dinner to-day, when we went up on the poop, we found that +both wind and sea had increased, but there was nothing to warn us of +what was to happen. We had arranged the folding-chairs against the +wheel-house, sheltered from the violence of the wind by the bulwarks, +and I was in the act of arranging a rug around my wife, when the +skipper cried out, “Now, then, mind yourself!” We felt the ship rising +higher and higher on an unusually heavy sea, and, looking forward, were +just in time to see a great, white cataract roar over the weather-side +abaft the main-rigging. Half of it tumbled into the waist, while the +other half broke with a stunning crash full against the forward end of +the poop-deck-house. It wrenched away a heavy wooden shutter, built to +repel just such an attack as this, snapping a thick brass hook as if +it had been of glass, washed away a short, massive ladder leading to +the top of the deck-house, and then bore down upon us like a freshet. +Captain Scruggs again came to the rescue, and, picking my wife up, +chair and all, held her clear of the flood; while the only thing for +me to do, seeing that my wife was safe, was to fall across one of the +stern-bitts hard by and lift my legs out of the water as I best could; +and here I remained for two minutes, floundering and wallowing about +as though on a pivot, and this just after an especially hearty dinner. +When most of the water had run off, the skipper placed my wife’s chair +on the deck again with such dexterous cunning as to disengage the +supporting-bar in the rear, letting the whole contrivance down flat, +so that my wife lay prone upon the deck in the chill sea-water, which +still swirled about our feet. It didn’t seem to disturb him much, and +he only remarked, as he stamped on the deck, squirting little jets of +water out of his Cape Horn slippers, “There, that’s more water than +I’ve seen on this ship’s poop since I’ve had her.” It was really a +grand spectacle as the sea broke on board, and would have made a superb +subject for a camera. + +We are now in the very heart of the violent river Plate region, being +at noon to-day abreast of that vast estuary, whose mouth is three +degrees in width. The Rio de la Plata, or River of Silver, is, like +Cape Hatteras, the dividing line between two climates: that of the +torrid Brazils and of the cold, bleak pampas of the Argentine and +Patagonia, just as Hatteras is the turning-point, so to speak, in +the climates of our Southern and Middle Atlantic States. They are, +too, about equidistant from the equator. A rather noteworthy fact is +that, bar Cape Horn, the three stormiest localities in the Southern +Hemisphere are almost exactly in the same latitude, though thousands +of miles apart: the river Plate, Cape Agulhas, and Cape Leewin, at the +southwestern end of Australia. Latitude, 36° 55′ south; longitude, 47° +20′ west. + + ++June 28+ + +By way of variety, light winds were vouchsafed to us for the +twenty-four hours, varying from southwest to northeast, and we made not +fifty miles of southing in that time. Very suddenly last night at nine +o’clock the wind let go at southwest, and instantly came out of the +southeast, backing gradually to northeast, where it is now; but though +a fair wind we are not doing three knots an hour. However, the glass +is falling and a change is no doubt at hand, and the sea has gone down +till nothing remains but a sullen, greasy roll from south-southeast. +We earnestly hope for a strong, fair wind which will give us at least +eight knots, for the skipper’s temper is failing rapidly, and he is +beginning to rage at the weather. Generally, by the fiftieth day from +New York he has crossed the parallel of 50° south, so that in round +numbers we are about seven hundred miles north of his average, this +being our forty-eighth day at sea. It has been noted previously, I +think, that he has never been more than one hundred and thirty days on +a voyage, and has made eight voyages between New York and San Francisco +in less than one hundred days; his longest passage of the Horn--that +is, from 50° to 50°--was nineteen days; the shortest, eleven. Fine +work, all this, which few ship-masters can equal. + +My wife asked the skipper last evening if he had ever lost a ship. He +said no, but that he had had one or two narrow calls. “One of the worst +cases of smash-up I ever saw,” he continued, “happened to me when I +had the ‘Judas Dawes’ about six years ago. We were well down in the +southeast Trades in the Pacific, bound from ’Frisco to New York; the +weather had been squally, and on this particular day, in about 14° +south, I had specially told the mate not to loose the jib-topsail, +but when I went below after dinner for a nap the beggar did it. When +I went on deck again at four there was a squall makin’ ahead, and I +ordered some hands to stand by the sky-sail-halliards, for I didn’t +know the jib-topsail had been loosed. Well, sir, the squall hit us (it +was a corker) and snapped off the jib-boom; and, as I ran forrad, crack +went the foretop-mast, then the maint’-gallant-mast, and at last over +went the mizzen-t’-gallant-mast. In all my goin’ to sea I never saw +the like of it; ’twas as bad nearly as the ‘May Flint,’ only we had +smooth water. Forrad we were a wreck, with nothing at all above the +foreyard, while alongside was a fearful mass o’ gear slammin’ against +the ship, and you know those Trades in the Pacific blow fresh. Well, we +cleared up the wreck after hard work, sent up a few of the old yards +that weren’t too far gone to fish, made sail, and crossed Sandy Hook +Bar, ninety-eight days from ’Frisco, under a jury-rig.” Captain Scruggs +has as great a reputation for fast passages as any living American +ship-master in the California trade, but we’ll have to have better luck +if we are to reach port in less than one hundred and thirty days from +New York. + +We are entering that region most celebrated in the world for its +sunsets; it would be interesting to know whether there is anything in +this, or whether it is imagination on the part of captains. At any +rate, we witnessed one this evening finer than any which we have ever +seen before; the sun sinking into the core of a huge, crimson cavern +in the centre of an inky cloud, from behind which shot up scores of +slender, golden arrows toward the zenith, presenting a scene of such +lurid magnificence as to fill the heart with reverence and wonder. And +by that same token, the sun is getting low in the northern sky, his +altitude at meridian being only a little above 30°, or about the same +as at New York towards the end of December. + +The day being chill and raw, with a noon temperature of 52°, a fire was +lighted in the cabin stove for the first time; and as the thermometer +below has stood for a long while at 55° and a dismal drizzle prevailed +all day, the heat and glow of the fire were grateful beyond expression. +Latitude, 37° 42′ south; longitude, 47° 40′ west. + + ++June 29+ + +From six o’clock yesterday evening till noon to-day we had a breeze +so light that at times the sky-sails flapped idly against the masts, +and for several hours we were becalmed on a motionless sea,--a sea so +wonderfully smooth that, but for the temperature, we might readily +have fancied ourselves in the equatorial Doldrums again. At four +yesterday afternoon a crisp little breeze came whipping along out +of the south (although it lasted only two hours) driving away the +squalls and muggy air, a bright, rosy atmosphere taking their place +at sundown, with a horizon as sharply cut as the edge of a razor. As +for the night which followed, it was as brittle and sparkling as any +evening in Nova Scotia, wanting only the flashing pennons of the Aurora +Borealis to complete the picture. The firmament glittered with splendid +constellations, the stars dancing and scintillating with the glance +of steel, as though electric sparks, while the Milky Way seemed firm +and solid enough to walk upon. A magnificent sunrise succeeded this +matchless night, and we stood entranced by the glory of the scene for +half an hour, watching the lovely colors shift every few seconds like +the revolutions of a kaleidoscope, changing the tiny, pink, shell-like +clouds into glowing, golden embers as the great orb touched the horizon +and threw a path of crimson fire even to the vessel’s side. Where are +the gales of wind which are supposed to scream incessantly over the +Southern Ocean? Where are the giant seas which sweep the South Atlantic +with their foaming crests? It is not difficult to answer the latter +question, for we will not meet with any of those tremendous rollers +which have made Cape Horn the hobgoblin of navigators till we have +cleared Staten Land and receive the full fury of the thousands of miles +of tempestuous ocean which lie to the south and west of the Horn. It is +true that on our first voyage we experienced very heavy weather when in +this latitude; but then we were bound the other way and were near the +forty-third eastern meridian (about four hundred miles the other side +of Good Hope) at this parallel; the weather, as a general rule, is far +worse farther to the eastward at 40° south than in here near the land, +where bright skies and much smoother seas are the rule rather than the +exception. We are not more than three hundred and fifty miles from +South America now, so that even if we did have a heavy westerly gale +(westerly winds are almost constant south of 30° south) the sea could +not rise to such heights as it does off Agulhas and Cape Horn. + +But these gentle winds we cannot understand; at dinner-time to-day, +though, a nice little breeze came along from the westward, and we are +humming along under the sky-sails, doing well except that we are not +making much westing, as we can’t do better than south by west. + +The captain is like one demented. As MacFoy whispered to me this +afternoon when the jib-topsail-sheet parted, throwing him into a +paroxysm, “If he doesn’t get a fair wind soon he’ll go mad.” In truth, +he has been in a passion all day, chassezing up and down the main-deck +as though he had a devil. Just before the sheet went he had a spasm +of tautening things up, and went braying about with a voice of brass, +driving the men like animals before him; he had just ordered the above +sheet flattened in when crack it went, and in a few seconds the clew of +the sail was in fluttering ribbons, for the wind, though not strong, +whipped away the old canvas as though it were a cobweb. The mate caught +it too when he came out of his cavern at quarter to twelve to take +the sun, and by the time that we sat down to dinner the old man had +worked him into a speechless state, so that throughout the meal he sat +crushed and silent, with a face like a cigar Indian. These repasts on +such occasions are pregnant with gloomy thoughts, stillness reigning +as the skipper fiercely gnaws at his dinner, clicking his teeth, while +the whole top of his head seems to move as he chews, his temples +particularly rotating like the eccentrics of a steam-engine. His head +is quite bald, and his face is embellished with such enormous whiskers +that his whole head looks like an inverted sea-anemone; and when he is +angry, as he was to-day, his black eyes so glitter and snap under such +shaggy brows that they seem about to jump out and annihilate you. After +dinner, which appeared to increase his ill-humor, being a dyspeptic, he +went up to put some new panes of glass into the skylight which the sea +had broken. He fussed and fumed around with putty, diamond, and chisel +for half an hour, at the end of which time he had one pane nicely +adjusted, when it cracked across one corner. This almost prostrated +him, and when two other cracks appeared in rapid succession, each +calling forth a low, intense “d----,” he simply got up and ran away. + +Then this amiable man commenced on the mate again, who, of course, +began to “bullyrag” the men, and finally brought down young Louis +Eckers to his knees with a hard blow in the face with his fist. This +was due solely to temper, because he had to repeat an order which Louis +didn’t understand on account of his ignorance of English. + +Our first albatross presented himself to view this morning. When you +are making your first long voyage there is generally some confusion at +first, resulting in the more or less similarity between an albatross +and a molly-hawk. The latter are large birds and really look a good +deal like the former; but when you have seen an albatross half a dozen +times, you will never forget his appearance. There is no mistaking that +great beak or the odd hunchback-look of those shoulders, much less the +majestic flight of the stately bird as he skims along close to the +surface of the sea and then rises in a splendid circle on those great +wings of his. Our friend of this morning, however, did not long abide +with us, but, after looking us over, wheeled about and vanished in the +south. A Cape pigeon struck the taffrail this morning and fell on the +poop by the wheel-house. He was a beautiful little creature, with a +snow-white breast, dark-brown wings splashed with white, and a glossy +black head and neck, with a sheen as of satin on the feathers. After +sufficiently admiring the little fellow and showing him to the cat, who +wouldn’t approach within ten feet of him, we hove it overboard, and it +whizzed screaming away to rejoin its companions, who now follow us in +scores. Latitude, 38° 12′ south; longitude, 49° 35′ west. + + ++June 30+ + +The bright happy weather of yesterday has given place to a chill, +gloomy day with half a gale from the westward, while the ship under +reefed topsails has been digging into a strong head-sea in quite a +violent manner. How tender and delicate, so to speak, even the best +and largest of wooden vessels really are! For instance, at nine last +evening the second mate said that he thought he would put the gaskets +on the royals, the sky-sails having come in before supper. + +“What on earth do you want to stow the royals for?” said I; “there +certainly is not wind enough for that.” + +“No, it’s not the wind,” he answered, “but this sea’s makin’ ahead, and +she’ll strain goin’ into it with the royals on her.” + +There certainly was a southerly sea running, but the ship was diving +easily, without wrenching or pounding; and it surely was very +surprising that a powerful ship like this would have to shorten sail +for such a swell. “And that’s just the great point in favor of an iron +ship,” said Mr. Rarx; “you can drive her through most anything and not +give her a thought. You know the ‘William J. Rotch’? We opened her all +up forrad a-drivin’ of her into a head-sea beatin’ up the Sea of Japan +trying to find Willywoodstock in a fog.” + +“Where’s that place? It’s new to me,” said I. + +“Siberia,” was his reply; and it was not until some hours afterward +that I grasped his meaning; he intended to say Vladivostok. + +As the night wore on it grew squally, and at three in the morning +the fore- and maintop-sails were reefed, while at four o’clock the +massive iron hook on the cross-jack-tack carried away, and the sail +was saved only by the prompt and good work of both watches. I awoke in +the midst of the operation, and above the boom of the seas we could +hear the skipper’s hurricane voice shouting, “Haul away on those +buntlines; _haul away on those buntlines_; +HAUL AWAY ON THOSE +BUNTLINES+.” + +At five yesterday afternoon, just before we clewed up the sky-sails, +we sailed through a whole fleet of albatrosses, feeding quietly on +the water. It was the first time that we had seen so many of the big +birds at rest at one time, and they looked very large and dignified as +they rose and sunk upon the swell. To say that we sailed through them +is not strictly correct, though, for when we had approached to within +two hundred yards or so they rose from the surface and went sailing +away into the southwest. It is always interesting to watch them rise +from the water, flapping their immense wings, each two yards long, +and rapidly paddling with feet as large as cabbage leaves to gain an +impetus; when, the wind striking beneath their pinions, they stow their +great feet somewhere in their stern feathers, and with a couple of +powerful strokes of wing away they soar up to windward; and you can +watch an albatross for half an hour at a time thereafter, and not a +single alar movement can be discerned. + +The Scottish bosun entertained me last night for some time in drawing +comparisons between various sailing ships. I asked him how the men +liked it here. “Why, can’t you tell?” said he. “They don’t like it at +all; and I can tell you it’s no child’s play aboard here. Most of the +men, you see, have come out of British ships, where they don’t break +men’s bones with clubs or their hearts with drivin’.” + +“If you like British ships better than ours, what did you sign in this +one for?” I asked. + +“Why did I?” he replied. “Why, for the same reason that lots of others +do,--for the sake o’ the Snug Harbor. Ye see, if any man serves five +years in American ships and can prove it, he can end his days in peace +and comfort in the Sailors’ Snug Harbor on Staten Island, where they +take care of him. But, say, I never see a skipper like this one before. +Has he slept at all since we came to sea? I’m hanged if I think so, for +at all times o’ the night the first thing you know there’s th’ old man +standin’ within two foot of you on the main-deck, like a black spook. +Lord knows how he gets around, _I_ don’t.” + +To-day we attained the highest southern latitude which my wife and I +ever reached, as on our first voyage around the other cape 39° 5′ was +the southernmost point. Having crossed the fortieth parallel, we have +also probably passed without the influence of the river Plate region; +but it is too bad that we are not two hundred miles farther to the +westward. Latitude, 40° 31′ south; longitude, 51° 10′ west. + + ++July 1+ + +Strong winds from the westward, shifting in the morning watch to +southeast, and a rough sea prevailed up to noon to-day, when it cleared +up, a persistent rain having added its portion to the dreariness of the +weather. At five this morning, when the wind shifted to the southeast, +we wore and stood in shore on the port tack, heeling well over to a +strong breeze. Both wind and sea increased as the morning advanced, +and at nine we had to take some of the sails off the ship. And here +mark the skipper’s perversity: at this particular moment we were in +quite a severe squall, and I shouted to him, “It’s breezing all the +time.” “No, it ain’t,” he replied, harshly; “the wind’s lettin’ go.” +Ten minutes later he ordered the maintop-gallant-sail to be clewed up, +and in another five minutes he ordered in the spanker. Anything to +differ from me and express an opinion of his own, even if he has to act +against it. + +After these two sails had come in the ship was easier, but the sea +was making very rapidly, and in another hour we were taking large +quantities of water aboard. It was a wild sight then: an immense +squall overhanging us and darkening the heavens and the sea; the ship +enveloped in clouds of whirling spray; the driving rain, whipping us +with the sting of a lash; the crash of a sea now and then against the +forward house; and the flock of sea-birds astern wheeling and diving +through the squall, with a brace of gaunt, gray albatrosses sailing +calmly along, as though this were a tropic zephyr. + +During one of these squalls the carpenter was observed at work on the +weather side of the forecastle-house, dodging the seas as each gave +warning of its approach by a peculiar motion just before it broke +aboard, which one soon learns to know. We were beginning to think +that if he didn’t look sharp he would catch it, when a great mass of +water arose alongside, faltered a moment high up above the rail, and +then, with overwhelming fury, the whole sea thundered aboard. First +it flattened Chips out against the deck-house as though he had been +crucified against it; then it lifted him, mighty man though he is, and +drove him with terrible force against the pumps; while the huge volume +of water, encountering the various obstacles in its mad career about +the deck, shot into the air as high as the mainyard, totally blotting +out the waist of the ship. What saved that carpenter from mortal +hurt is beyond human ken. The mate says that it was his sheathing of +blubber which encases his carcass like that of a seal. At any rate, he +painfully gathered up his clumsy, massive frame and stumbled forward +with both hands on his left leg, which proved to be very badly bruised, +and he complains now of a hard pain in his chest. This was by far more +water than we have had on board at any one time, and it is difficult to +conceive of the grandeur of such a sea breaking aboard, though it is an +awful sight withal; its power seems resistless, and as it sweeps over +the side with a peculiar, crushing sound, one involuntarily grips the +rail or a belaying-pin with the grasp of a vice. + +When this last squall had passed, lo! a ship to windward, and I was +again the first to sing out “Sail ho.” There is much secret pleasure +for me in this; for, whenever it occurs, the captain always walks over +to Mr. Goggins, who is generally wool-gathering at the break of the +poop, and asks him if there is anything in sight. “Naw, sir, there +hain’t nothin’. Oh, yes, there’s a sail to wind’ard, sir, through the +fog.” “Oh, thanks,” usually answers the skipper ironically, by which +the mate knows that he’s been caught again. + +Visions of the “Dowes” appeared to us as we studied the stranger as +closely as the flying spray and rain would permit, the ship being under +her topsails with the main-sail hauled up. Presently, though, we saw +that she had no sky-sail-yards, proving that she was not our friend; +while her short, thick, pole bowsprit showed that she was doubtless a +metal ship, which belief was later confirmed by painted ports. + +At noon the sun burst through the dense pall of cloud, and an afternoon +of dazzling beauty followed, with the good old “Higgins” surging ahead +over the long, blue, foaming seas, a sky of sapphire overhead, dappled +with a few thin, cirrus clouds and a grand breeze over the beam, giving +us about eight knots on a southwest-half-west course. Just at noon the +other ship, too, presented a splendid appearance. To begin with, she +was a very handsome vessel, and had so altered her position as to be +close astern, a little on our weather quarter, distant about one-third +of a mile. Her topsails and courses (she had set her main-sail and +cross-jack) were swelled out like great cylinders, while her painted +ports lent her the dignity of an old-time frigate; and she presented +to us a perfect ideal of the poetry of motion as she rolled deeply but +easily, now sinking into a valley to her lower yards, now cleaving the +lofty crest of a breaking sea which veiled her in a storm of spray. + +At half-past one we decided to signal her, and ran up our number, +to which she instantly replied that she was the “La Pallice”; then +we informed her that we were from New York bound to San Francisco, +fifty-one days out, while she proved to be from Hamburg for the same +destination, and was fifty-nine days at sea; after which we dipped our +ensign, which she answered with the tricolor of France. + +We are reading Nansen’s “First Crossing of Greenland” together with +the greatest interest, being one of the most charmingly written of all +stories of Arctic work. What a delightful time we will have with his +“Farthest North”! We have it on board, but I am waiting till we pass +50° south, so that we can read it in a part of the world almost as +rough and desolate as he passed over in his great journey. Latitude, +42° 24′ south; longitude, 52° 36′ west. + + ++July 2+ + +We had a good breeze from the south all last night and this morning, +which put us off to about west by south; but, as our aim for the past +four or five days has been to make westing rather than southing, this +breeze was most acceptable. The strong wind of yesterday eased up in +the second dog-watch last night, and we carried the top-gallant-sails +without trouble afterward. + +A great change has taken place in the temperature, for at eight +this morning the thermometer stood at 38° in the air and 47° in the +water,--a fall in thirty-six hours of 15° in the atmosphere and 16° in +the sea. People who have never been exposed for consecutive hours to +a temperature at sea of between 30° and 40° can have no just idea of +how penetratingly cold the wind is when the mercury drops below 40°, +or of how many clothes it is necessary to wear if one wants to stay on +deck a long while without constant motion. For example, I have on now +two suits of heavy underwear, pilot-cloth trousers, a heavy jersey, a +whip-cord waistcoat, a padded leather jacket, and a mackintosh; the +costume is completed with mention of knitted woollen gloves and socks +and leather boots and ditto hat. Now, there are numerous brawny, burly +individuals who will ridicule this mass of apparel, and insist that +one ought to keep moving, which would make it unnecessary. But to +begin with, our promenade is here limited to seventy-five feet instead +of several hundred, as in the case of a transatlantic steamer; and, +besides, I have not that maniac passion for pedestrianism which lays +so fierce a hold on some people the instant that they set foot upon a +vessel’s deck. When I want exercise, half an hour at the pumps, even in +cold weather, is sufficient; and I’ll warrant that it would be enough +for the brawny, burly individuals before noticed. Neither of us came to +sea to stay below, so we pile on sufficient clothes to repel even the +strongest blasts, and can sit comfortably and unruffled for hours on +deck without a break. + +Points in connection with such a voyage as this can be learned only by +experience; our first one gave us all that was necessary, so that we +knew exactly what to bring with us this time. A leather jacket very +thickly lined is almost inconceivably useful, as are a pair of heavy +leather knee-boots, at least one size too large, to allow for woollen +socks. Such boots well greased will be sufficiently water-tight for +all ordinary purposes, and if they should become water-logged, they +can always be dried at the galley-fire; rubber boots, though, should +never be omitted from the sea wardrobe. The best head-gear is a woollen +cap with ear-flaps, and a sou’wester, of course, for bad weather. As +to oilskins, there is now manufactured a water-proof stuff, which has +proved in this case to be everything that is claimed for it. It is +brown in color, and in texture much like a mackintosh, but harder to +the touch, and is in two pieces,--short jacket and trousers. These +suits have been used in the life-saving service on the Atlantic coast, +and the only objection which the men made to the suits was that the +sand cut the stuff in a high wind, so that in a short time it became +quite porous. At sea, however, I have never found the equal of one +of these suits; and, as a test, I stood for two hours yesterday in +drenching rain and spray in one position, so as to allow the elements +full continuous sweep at one point, and when we went below the inside +of the jacket was not even damp. A long oil-skin coat is extremely +unwieldy at sea, for if it is blowing at all hard the skirts cling to +the legs most aggravatingly, and I have had some hard falls by being +thus tripped. All mates wear long yellow coats, however, and I wondered +why until yesterday, when I asked Mr. Goggins if a short jacket and +pants wouldn’t be more comfortable; but he replied, indignantly, “Wot +do yer think I am, a foremast ’and?” It seemed to me that a mate who +has to wear a long coat to distinguish him from an ordinary sailor must +be like the man who tells another that he himself is a gentleman,--he +must be somewhat in doubt about it. + +It is to be hoped that this treatise on deep-sea garments has not +proved a bore; but after our previous voyage so many persons asked us +what we wore in bad weather in the Southern Ocean, that the above +explanations may not be out of place. My wife dresses much as she would +for golf,--a short skirt and leather gaiters for clear, cold weather, +with yellow oil-skins when it rains and the spray flies. + +We observed some further fine cloud effects to-day a little after +sunrise, the horizon being smothered at frequent intervals with dense +squalls; and at nine o’clock a ponderous mass of cumulus cloud appeared +in the south, rearing its immense domes nearly to the zenith, like +heaps of yellow wool, for the sun’s reflection changed the color of the +great bank to that of rich cream, while far below, at the base, the +cloud shaded off into a dim, sable mass. “There’s snow in that fellow,” +quoth the skipper, which was certainly true, for ten minutes later we +were swallowed up in a thick snow-squall, which lasted for fifteen +or twenty minutes. Snow seemed to be a singular phenomenon on the +second of July, not to mention the biting cold. Latitude 43° 8′ south; +longitude, 56° 45′ west. + + ++July 3+ + +This morning broke with a clear sky and little or no wind, and when the +sun came up fine and rosy, he looked over the rim of the horizon across +an azure sea just crinkled by a faint westerly breeze. Light as it was, +though, there was a biting sting in it which, before breakfast, set +the teeth chattering and raised one’s knuckles into big gristly knobs. +The broad sweep of the South Atlantic was well-nigh motionless, for it +was only at considerable intervals that a slight swell came sighing up +from the Antarctic, and the sea was as calm as off Newport in August. +Clothes suspended against the walls hung without motion, and we might +well have fancied ourselves in Long Island Sound; as for the day, it +was cloudless save for an occasional snow flurry, which lasted only a +few minutes. This clear, cold, merry weather at sea is indescribably +charming, though, no doubt, the men would tell a different tale, for +Olsen and Jacquin, who were mending an old fine-weather royal on the +cabin-house this morning, had to knock off work now and then to beat +some feeling into their stiffened fingers before they could drive the +needles through the canvas. + +[Illustration: Mending sails in fine weather] + +As we draw nearer and nearer to Cape Horn the men are daily growing +very anxious to know the ship’s position, and as I am, of course, the +only individual on board who will gratify their curiosity, they often +ask me several times a day. Frequently, on the main-deck, a man will +ask what the position is in a very low tone, after a careful scrutiny +round about to see that none of the after-guard is hard by. Sometimes, +as I pass by the wheel-house, I am assailed in a raven’s whisper with, +“Say, mister, what’s the latitood?” and their pleasure at being told +is quite child-like. A passenger on a sailing ship, by the way, is +seldom, if ever, called by his name; he is simply “mister.” Of course, +in a general way, sailors often get an idea of the approach of land +from the discoloration of the water, the increase in the number of +vessels sighted, and the presence of land-birds; but the average sailor +probably couldn’t tell within much less than a thousand miles of where +he is on a voyage like this. Even a second mate is generally very much +in the dark on this subject, for he is never a navigator on American +ships, as he ought to be, and keeps no reckoning. We have often seen +Mr. Rarx go up to the mate and hint in various ways that he would like +to know the ship’s position at noon. The mate sometimes tells him; but +Mr. Rarx is too good a seaman to stand well with such a man as the +mate, who does not know very much more of that art than some of the +sailors. Besides, it _might_ get to the men through one of the +bosuns, which would be truly horrible and unspeakable; therefore, +unless there is a passenger aboard, sailors live in almost blank +ignorance of their whereabouts throughout a four or five months’ voyage. + +The bosun of the port-watch, big MacFoy, has been limping badly for +several days, his left foot being so severely mashed and swollen that +he cannot bear even a loose rubber boot on it. This is the result of a +sea which fell upon him one night at the weather forebraces. It slung +him across the deck and jammed his foot against a fife-rail stanchion, +but luckily broke no bones. I have promised to give him a glass of grog +to-morrow, the Fourth of July, but exceeding caution will have to be +exercised lest I be apprehended by the powers. + +Yesterday the main-spencer was rigged, and as this is a heavy-weather +sail, a description of it may prove of interest. It is otherwise known +as a storm-try-sail, and, being a fore-and aft-sail, is set on the +main lower mast. A number of stout screw-eyes were driven into the +mast, extending from a point about eight feet above the deck to an +iron band three feet below the top; through these eyes an iron rod +was inserted, and to this rod the sail was laced. A standing-gaff was +then rigged, furnished with hoops, to which the head of the sail was +bent, the method of setting being by hauling it out on the gaff, like +the fore- and aft-sails on steamers. It is forty-four feet long on the +luff and twenty-two on the gaff, and is, of course, of No. 0 duck, with +a bolt-rope nearly as big as the fore-tack. The spencer is what is +known as a steadying sail in bad weather, and is usually set after the +courses have all been hauled up and the ship is head-reaching under the +lower topsails, or when the ship is regularly hove to. + +There was a very turbulent scene enacted while the sail was being bent. +The mate was aloft, swinging over the rim of the top in a bowline, +trying to fit the end of the gaff into a gooseneck, both man and spar +flying wildly about as the ship rolled. Two vangs led down from the +gaff-end to the deck, one on either side, while a man on each, trying +to hold it steady, was jerked about like the tail of a kite. The mate +was already in a passion, for no sooner would he have the end nearly +in the socket than away it would fly, while he himself brought to with +a thump against the futtock-shrouds. At this juncture Captain Scruggs +appeared with his sextant. It was the signal for chaos. Everything +almost immediately was plunged into inextricable confusion. Something +had manifestly gone wrong with the old man below, for he was bristling +when he laid down his instrument on the deck-house and walked with +foreboding leisure to the break of the poop. You could see that he +was seething within himself; but for some time he appeared totally +unconscious of the mate, the spencer, and everything else; but when +the gaff drew off and smote the taut weather-shrouds with the force +of a steam-hammer, he thought it was time to take a hand. Did the +mate give an order he would instantly countermand it, sandwiching +in sarcastic remarks, such as, “Ah, that’s beautiful! You’d make a +master-rigger, you would. Think you’ll git that in by dark? I could +put the whole main-mast in while you’re scratchin’ away up there.” At +these pleasantries old Goggins fairly snarled and bared his teeth in +devilish grins, but kept silent. At last, seeing a chance, he bawled +to the man below who was surging up on the rope, “Lower away smart, +now.” “Hoist away, there,” immediately cried the skipper. Behold the +fatal straw on the dromedary. “’Ow in the name o’ G---- am Hi to do +this, Cap’n Scruggs, if you don’t let me alone?” And then they went +at it like Kilkenny cats, so that the air quivered with blasphemous +discharges. It was quite astonishing to hear the mate answer back with +such intrepid vehemence, and they kept it up so long that the captain +lost his sight; for when he removed his sextant the sun was falling, +which didn’t add very much to the geniality of his temper. Scenes of +this sort are heralded with the most intense joy by the men, who turn +their heads away to hide faces which actually glisten with delight. +Latitude, 43° 13′ south; longitude, 58° 24′ west. + + ++July 4+ + +We celebrated Independence Day not with pyrotechnical demonstrations, +but with a remarkable barometric performance: it fell seven-tenths of +an inch in ten hours, from 30.40 to 29.70, and this with an ugly look +to windward. The breeze began to freshen late yesterday afternoon, +and at five o’clock in came the fore- and mizzen-royals. At table, +the various utensils suddenly began to jump about, which was very +astonishing, inasmuch as the sea was almost perfectly quiet half an +hour earlier. The breeze kept on making, and when we came up from +supper, at six o’clock, the captain ordered the main-royal- and +mizzen-top-gallant-sail clewed up. At this time the ship was diving +heavily, and it was time to take the fore- and maintop-gallants off +her, too; the skipper had just concluded to furl them, when, with +a great weltering plunge, the ship pushed her lofty flaring bows +completely under a coaming sea, and then instantly rearing back, the +enormous mass of water was projected with terrific force against the +forward end of the forecastle-house. It smashed the lee door like +cardboard, though it was three inches thick, and then washed aft like a +Hooghly bore, absolutely filling the lee decks to the rail with solid +water,--that is, it was six feet deep in the scuppers, and it seemed +incredible that any bulwarks could withstand the strain; yet the water +ran off in a few minutes, leaving no further trace of its power than a +snarled mass of running gear which had been lifted off the pins. Good +luck that the lookout had just been ordered to the top of the house +instead of the forecastle-head, or there wouldn’t have been much of him +left after that sea had struck him. + +The forecastle, though, was a spectacle indeed. Its doors open forward, +which no sailor likes; and when the big sea came from dead ahead and +stove the lee door, the water poured into the house in thousands of +gallons. It stood a foot deep on the floor, and shot up violently to +the carlines at every roll, washing the men’s bedding out of even the +topmost bunks (they are always built in three tiers, one above the +other), while their chests went banging about in the deep water, the +majority of them burst open, and others broken all to pieces. The sills +of the doors on all ships opening on the main-deck are usually about +eighteen inches high, to prevent the entrance of water, if possible; +but if, as in this case, a great quantity find its way into the +forecastle, these very sills prevent its egress. To be sure, there are +leaders which are supposed to draw the water off, but they are so small +that more than an hour passed before all the brine had disappeared. How +sorrowful and helpless the poor fellows looked as they surveyed their +drenched clothes and broken chests! and, worse than all, the dank, +soaked forecastle. It means more suffering and privation than landsmen +have any idea of, for the men will have to sleep in soggy, clammy, +mildewed bunks for at least a month. No forecastle ever dries off Cape +Horn, on account of the intense humidity of that region; and even if +the forecastle has a stove in it, it doesn’t dry things out, but calls +forth instead a rank steam from the reeking walls, which pervades the +room like a foul mist. + +All this time the glass had been falling, and we looked for bad +weather; the captain had the main-sail hauled up, and in every way +stood by for a heavy blow. But we worked out a false reckoning, for +the wind shortly afterward let go more than half, while the aneroid +rose to 29.85, where it is now. Since six o’clock this morning we have +been about six points off our course, with the wind at south-southwest; +therefore the captain once more wrapped himself in his mantle of wrath, +and throughout dinner kept mumbling continuously to himself concerning +the probability of there being a Jonah on board. This was not the first +time that he has hinted at such things, and, though we knew well that +he meant us, I didn’t say anything, but let him growl on. It is almost +impossible to conceive how unpleasant it is to be considered a Jonah +aboard ship; it is easy to say, “What’s the use of paying any attention +to it?” But you can’t help heeding it, though it is only superstition, +and the eyes of every one on board aft seem to say, “Look at the +Jonah.” Foremast hands do not care how long they are at sea if they get +decent food and even passably good treatment; indeed, the saying among +them is, “More days, more dollars.” Still, in spite of everything we +are reminded of that dismal verse in the “Ancient Mariner,”-- + + “One by one, by the star-dogged moon, + Too quick for groan or sigh, + Each turned his face with a ghastly pang + And cursed me with his eye.” + +There is another cause, however, for the skipper’s bad temper; +yesterday we slaughtered our first pig, and at all three meals to-day +we had fresh pork. Captain Scruggs caused prodigious quantities of it +to disappear and has been in anguish ever since. Indeed, it is hard +to imagine anything edible which will so upset one’s digestion as +fresh pork at sea; it is bad enough ashore, where plenty of exercise +is to be had, but aboard ship one hearty meal of pork freshly killed +will cause an incredible amount of distress. The skipper instanced +an illustration of how difficult it is to digest at sea: on the last +outward voyage he killed a pig just before he reached San Francisco, +and, the weather being too warm to keep the meat sweet, most of it was +given to the sailors. Now, these men can digest sour, soggy bread and +salt beef like ironwood, yet this fresh pork vanquished them, and five +men were actually laid up in their bunks at the end of the second day. + +Had many severe hail-squalls during the last twenty-four hours, but +fine weather otherwise, sharp and clear. Latitude, 44° 41′ south; +longitude, 59° 58′ west. + + ++July 5+ + +Very light southerly airs and a calm sea have added vastly to our +surprise at such weather off Patagonia. How remarkable it is to find +these gentle, variable winds here, when the popular notion of this +region is a continuous westerly gale! Findlay’s “South Atlantic +Directory,” however, indicates generally fine weather from 40° to +50° south _near the land_, and this has been our skipper’s +almost invariable experience, except that the wind ought to be to the +northward instead of to the southward of west; at the present moment, +though, the breeze shows signs of hauling to the northward with the +sun, instead of against, so perhaps it will stop there for a while. The +wind has been so light and contrary for the twenty-four hours, that in +that period we made only eight miles of latitude and seven of longitude! + +My wife and I have finished reading Nansen’s “First Crossing of +Greenland,” and during its perusal we learned some remarkable facts. +For instance, it is strange how the body craves fat or grease of any +sort when deprived of it for a long while; and it is also very odd to +read that a lump of butter eaten alone slakes the thirst of men in +the Arctic regions! I wonder why Nansen doesn’t undertake the ascent +of Mount Everest? It seems to me that he, with all his strength and +vitality, would be peculiarly well fitted for such an expedition, not +to mention his being a man of science. How much interest the writings +of Sir Joseph Hooker would lack if that great mountaineer had not been +a scientist! The amount of risk to Nansen, too, in comparison with an +Arctic voyage, would be very small; while the glory of being the first +to stand upon the topmost pinnacle of the earth’s surface could be +dwarfed only by the attainment of the Pole itself. I have loaned the +second mate the Greenland book, as Mr. Rarx is deeply interested in +such work, and is desirous of joining an expedition to the North Pole. +He fears not being able to pass the physical tests necessary before +becoming a member of the crew, but as he has considerable knowledge of +the Peary Greenland expedition, it is my notion that he tried to join +it, but was rejected; and as he laid stress on the fact that no one +would be taken who had any old scars on his person, it is not unlikely +that he was barred for this reason. Considering his lean, powerful +frame, he ought to be well able to endure hardships. + +Looking at the spencer, which is, of course, brailed up in such light +weather, Mr. Rarx said, “Oh, those are great sails! Wait till it’s +blowin’ and she under that and the topsails! They’ll stand a power +o’ wind, but I’ve seen ’em blown away. I was second mate of a Nova +Scotia ship, the ‘Mary L. Burrill,’ a few years ago, and we were bound +across this time from Greenock to St. John in February, which it isn’t +necessary for me to say anything more about the weather. We’d be’n +lyin’ to for twenty hours under a goose-winged maintop-sail and spencer +when the wind all at once rose to a perfect hurricane and hove us down +to the hatches. And then the maintop-sail and that there spencer, +sir, nearly as hard and thick as a plank, flew away like a muslin +handkercheef; and though we had double gaskets on all the sails, four +of ’em was blown loose and ripped off the yards like paper. Now, it’s +blowin’ pretty hard when a lower maintop-sail goes, but nothin’ short +of a hurricane can budge a new spencer. But no canvas ever made will +stand a North Atlantic midwinter gale, and you hear me. We sighted a +big White Star freighter this day, and she afterward reported the wind +eighty miles an hour _between_ the squalls; not in ’em, mind. And +if you want to see somethin’ to put joy in your heart, you ought to see +these big White Star steamers in a heavy gale! I saw the ‘Cufic’ once +comin’ across in another cyclone in the ‘J. B. Walker,’ and the way she +kept clear of the seas was a caution. I’m a good enough American, but +you can’t beat Harland and Wolff very much.” + +Mr. Rarx is an infinitely more agreeable man to talk to than the mate, +who is the longest-winded and most tiresome old porpoise who ever +spun a yarn. His only recommendations are his hideousness, which is +positively attractive, and his strange, absurd facial contortions when +he doesn’t intend to be funny. Sometimes during the first watch, when +it is very dark, with the exception of the binnacle lamp which casts +its rays upon him as he crosses its path, he is actually weird-looking. +His voice, too, is as husky as a rusty hinge now, owing to a severe +cold, and last night he vented some curious statements. Neither of us +had said a word for maybe five minutes, I watching the compass card, he +grinning and mouthing to himself in the moonlight. Presently he wormed +himself over to where I stood, looked earnestly at me a few seconds and +croaked,-- + +“You’ll see plenty of people in California with no teeth.” + +“How is that?” said I. + +“Dunno,” he replied; “they do say it’s the climate; anyhow, you’ll see +lots with nothin’ but gums.” + +Then he crawled back to the other side, performed some further silent, +facial acrobatics, returned, and wheezed out mysteriously, “You’ll be +bothered with fleas there; they’re that plenty I always has a regular +quadrille with ’em.” + +A remarkable habit the captain has at table of asking the mate if he +won’t have some of everything in sight; no matter how many dishes +there may be on the board, the skipper always gazes fiercely at him +for a moment, and then says rapidly and severely, “Have some of the +salt meat, Mr. Goggins? Have some beans? Have some potatoes? Have some +bread? Have some sparrow-grass?” All this in one breath, to which the +mate answers, “A leetle, if you please, sir;” or if it’s a second +asking, which is merely form, he replies with his droning, “No-o-o, +sir, I thank you, sir; I’ve ’ad sufficient, sir, I thank you, sir,” as +though to show how he is depriving himself, for he insists that it is +vulgar to enjoy eating! + +Sometimes the old creature corners my wife and me and entertains +us with anecdotes of his acquaintances in San Francisco and how +excessively numerous his influential friends are there. He will tell +us that ’Arry Dolan is now getting seventy-five dollars a month at +the Union Iron Works; and when we venture the opinion that he must be +a rising young man, he answers, “Oh, ’Arry’s all right. Why, I knew +him w’en he was gettin’ only three dollars a week at the Works.” Here +generally follows a genealogical history of the Dolans for several +generations, while their individual characteristics become the subject +of minute discussion. + +Well, we’re beating slowly, slowly, down the inhospitable shores of +Patagonia, and our luck doesn’t seem to be much better than it was in +the southeast Trades. Latitude, 44° 49′ south; longitude, 60° 5′ west. + + ++July 6+ + +If our nautical instruments had not assured us that we were at noon in +about 45° south, distant one hundred and twenty-five miles from Cape +Dos Bahios, we might easily have imagined the ship to be lying off +Staten Island in New York Harbor. We never but once before saw the sea +so free from swell, and that was in the Indian Ocean, thirty-four miles +south of the equator; which position we not only held for twenty-four +hours, but during that entire period no one perceived the least +motion in the ship. It is true that to-day we made nearly one hundred +miles; but from eight till eleven this forenoon we were motionless +on the water, while a stage was slung over the stern a foot from the +surface, on which the mate and the carpenter worked for two hours on +the rudder-head; it is only once or twice during an entire voyage that +a vessel for hours at a time will not rise and fall twelve inches. To +us it is really a remarkable experience to thus float silently along +within three hundred and fifty miles of the Falklands, though the +skipper says, “Well, I told you we’d have light weather north of 50°.” + +At noon to-day, however, the western sky indicated a breeze, and +presently a little breath stole ever so gently over the quiet ocean, +scarcely curling the smooth, level plane of the sea; and, gradually +freshening, the ship gathered steerage way in five minutes or so and +began to lazily move ahead through a large flock of Cape pigeons which +had settled to feed in great numbers during the calm, though we could +perceive nothing edible in the water. The birds seemed to delight in +the breeze as much as we did, for in light weather they seldom rise +higher than a few feet above the surface, lacking the force of wind +which enables them to rise easily; as in a strong breeze they make no +further effort than to guide themselves, rising and falling without +movement of wing. A huge, hoary albatross, a perfect old patriarch, has +been with us all day, skimming over the water so closely as to touch it +occasionally with his breast, and seldom more than a foot from it. It +is wonderful that they can maintain so close and uniform a flight to +the surface, without movement and in a calm. + +The day before yesterday, being more exasperated than ever before at +the skipper’s continuous grumbling at the weather, I told him that I +thought that he asked altogether too much in demanding a fair wind all +the time, and that when a man began a voyage he ought to expect more or +less head-winds throughout the passage, for they were to be expected +anywhere and at any minute at sea during a whole voyage, even in the +Trades. Since then he hasn’t said a word against the weather, and is, +for him, extremely agreeable. Heavens, how hairy he is! So thickly +covered is his whole face that the only visible bare spots are his nose +and eyes; for his beard grows right up over his cheek-bones, and his +eyebrows seem to be spreading all over his forehead. So dense are his +whiskers that when he comes on deck after a session with his Dutch pipe +the smoke can still be seen eddying and seething in his beard. + +Last evening as we were reading some of Kipling’s delightful sea-poems +the skipper called down and asked whether we wouldn’t like to see a +lunar rainbow. We went on deck at once, and there, sure enough, was a +perfect specimen of this strange phenomenon, and so clearly defined +that the brighter colors were distinctly visible. We had seen but one +lunar rainbow before, and that was a very faint one in the Bay of +Bengal, about one hundred miles from the Sandheads. + +It is a curious fact that, like captains, there are comparatively few +foremast hands who remain perfectly strong and well throughout a long +passage. At least eight of ours are looking quite seedy, some with bad +colds, others with various disorders of liver and stomach, so that they +have to be doctored and fixed up with an assortment of medicines. The +way that five-grain blue-mass pills fly around on a deep-water ship is +a caution; one would think they were peppermint drops. Latitude 45° 20′ +south; longitude 62° 10′ west. + + ++July 7+ + +What a change can be wrought at sea in a few hours! At eleven yesterday +morning we were motionless upon a glassy sea; eight hours later we were +rushing southward under the topsails before a moderate gale! + + “And now the storm-blast came, and he + Was tyrannous and strong; + He struck with his o’ertaking wings, + And chased us south along.” + +Throughout yesterday afternoon the breeze steadily freshened, and +by four o’clock the sky-sails had been stowed, followed at five by +the royals, while after supper the gaskets were put on the three +top-gallant-sails and the cross-jack was hauled up; the ship logging +exactly twelve knots between six and seven o’clock, the best which we +have done yet, the wind being true and steady from west-northwest, +a little abaft the beam. I have seldom seen a finer sight than that +presented by the ship as she went bounding away south by west before +this grand breeze blowing straight off the pampas of Patagonia; the +moon, now at first quarter, casting a broad wake of silver radiance +over the short, steep, foaming seas which had arisen as though by +magic, and were already snarling and showing their teeth up above the +weather-quarter. By ten o’clock the spray had begun to bury the waist +of the ship once more, while at intervals during the night a deep, +heavy boom told us that something beside mere spray was tumbling over +the weather-side. + +When we went on deck this morning there was no diminution in the wind, +though it had shifted into the west; but as the captain had kept off +to south, it was still on the beam. The maintop-mast-stay-sail had +been set, and we found the watch in the act of hauling out the spencer +on the gaff, and we presently had an opportunity of seeing this piece +of canvas in actual use for the first time. Its cut was excellent, +and, together with the stay-sail, steadied the ship wonderfully. The +main-sail was reefed, so that the arch of this great sail, which +curved over the ship like the crescent of the moon, was fully thirty +feet above the deck. Although still carrying the six topsails and the +foresail, we were not taking anything but huge volumes of spray aboard, +in spite of the fact that the surface of the ocean to windward showed +long, parallel streaks of foam, like the cross-section of a rasher of +bacon,--an appearance observed only when it is really blowing hard. + +When one has been accustomed to the heavy, rigid main-sails of yachts, +a ship’s canvas in comparison (bar the spencer) appears to be, and +really is, singularly thin and limp. Even a brand-new foresail or +main-sail of a square-rigger cannot at all approach in thickness or +rigidity a yacht’s canvas; and it could not for a moment withstand +the strain to which the latter’s main-sail is subjected while being +stretched on the boom and gaff, not to mention the “sweating” up of +the sails with the jigs. As for a ship’s upper canvas, it has always +seemed to me too light, and I shall never forget my first acquaintance +with square-sails at close quarters. It was at Nassau. Walking one day +through a sponge-yard, I saw stretched on the ground great squares +of smoky, hempen canvas; and on feeling the various pieces, which +were the topsails of a vessel that had struck and gone to pieces on +Memory Rock, one hundred and fifty miles northwest of New Providence, +I remember thinking that it wasn’t at all surprising that the sails +of ships blew away if this was what they were made of. At any rate, +I put this vessel down as an old worn-out lumberman, fit for nothing +but carrying railway ties from Brunswick or Pensacola to New York. As +a matter of truth, these sails belonged to a fine British ship, the +“Blair Drummond”; and experience has since shown that her canvas was +neither better nor worse than the average, though hempen sails never +feel as thick or stout as those made of cotton-duck, which our ships +use. The advantages claimed for hemp are that it lasts longer, and that +sails made thereof are easier to handle than if made of cotton-duck, +but they do not present nearly so fine an appearance even when new. If +a ship’s canvas were made entirely of No. 0, or even of No. 1, duck, +it would be next to impossible to furl them in a hard blow. As it is, +with the soft, pliable duck and hemp, the blood often starts from the +men’s finger-ends from trying to gather in the bunt of the sail, which +bellies out like sheet-iron when the halliards have been let go. It was +only this morning that the mate told me that once, about thirty years +ago, when a foremast hand in the North Atlantic trade, he was one of +thirty men on the maintop-sail-yard (single) of the ship “Southampton,” +trying to put the third reef in the sail during a January gale. “And, +sir,” said he, “we could _not_ have tied the reef in that sail +if the ship had been sinkin’ under us, and that with a man for every +reef-point.” It is also surprising how neatly and compactly this thin +canvas can be furled on a yard. From the deck hardly anything at all +can be seen on the royal- and sky-sail-yards; while even the upper +topsails when in the gaskets are not anything like as bulky or hummocky +as the most fastidiously furled yacht’s main-sail. + +I forgot to say that I gave David, the Scot, a drink on July Fourth. He +had been throwing out clumsy hints for one on that day, so I filled a +four-ounce bottle with Glenlivet and took it to him while he was eating +his dinner in his tiny, water-logged cavern forward of the galley. The +radiance reflected from his countenance upon the walls as he sighted +the grog fairly lit up the gloomy den, and when he had downed the +fiery liquid perfectly raw, he put down the bottle and delivered the +following oration, his superb figure raised to its supreme height: +“Wherever ye may go in this world, sir, may good luck go with ye, hand +in hand; may it not be many years till ye get command of a ship and +the finest one under the flag; I thank ye for the best drink that ever +passed me lips.” I was quite taken aback by his earnestness and the +depth of feeling with which he uttered these words in the broadest of +brogue so pleasant to the ear; and when he hoped that I would soon +command a ship, he was wishing me to hold the most exalted position +which the mind of a seaman can conceive. + +By the look of the aneroid we are close to some dirt, as sailors say, +for now at 3 +P. M.+ the glass stands at 29.08, a fall of an +inch in twenty hours; the sky, too, has a hard look, the sun at noon +being unable to pierce the gloom, but shining hazy and dim, like a +gas-jet behind frosted glass. The altitude at noon now is only 20°, and +the sun’s rays are devoid of heat and almost of cheer. Last evening, +though, we witnessed another one of those rare and radiant Patagonian +sunsets. Every one who has looked at the illustrations in Nansen’s +“Farthest North” will call to mind some strange, impossible-looking +purple and crimson stratus clouds of the most violent hues. Well, +we have actually seen one of these singular and extremely gorgeous +skies, unnatural almost in its transcendent beauty. Nansen has caught +perfectly the more delicate tints as well as the most flaming colors. + +We did fine work to-day, and in the twenty-four hours logged two +hundred and forty miles. Latitude, 48° 45′ south; longitude, 65° 5′ +west. + + ++July 8+ + +At some time during the morning watch we crossed the fiftieth parallel +of south latitude, and have, therefore, now commenced the passage of +Cape Horn, the stormiest headland in the world, at the worst possible +season,--in the heart of the Antarctic winter. When a vessel is between +50° south in the Atlantic and 50° south in the Pacific she is said to +be making the passage of the Horn, and is off the Cape when she is +anywhere between those parallels; it matters not how far south she may +be blown, she is “off” Cape Horn from 50° to 50°. I think that I have +somewhere before said that an average passage would be about twenty +days, though the bad luck of some men is astonishing. On her last +westward voyage, for instance, the American ship “M. P. Grace” was more +than six weeks off the Cape,--forty-five days, to be precise. + +Late yesterday afternoon the westerly winds which we have carried for +two days began to weaken, and at seven last evening had eased down to +a gentle breeze. Still, a wind which will drive a vessel three hundred +miles in thirty hours in this part of the world and allow her to lay +her course at the same time is not to be lightly spoken of, and we are +all in a happy frame of mind. + +When the wind had almost let go, however, it began to edge stealthily +to the southward, and at 8.30 was at southwest, the dreaded point, +blowing in unsteady jerks. We had nothing above the topsails on the +ship, though she could easily have carried the royals, but there was +no use in piling on the canvas with the look that there was in the +southern sky. When the glass stands at 29.00 bad weather must be +expected; and when the captain left the deck at 8.45, the moon was +peering dimly through a gray, thin squall, bleared and sickly; the sea +was coming up from various points in short, convulsive, oily heaves and +a frowning rampart of dark cloud was rising in the south. “I’m going +below now for a wink,” said the skipper to Mr. Rarx, on watch; “keep +your eye open, for when it comes it’ll be sharp work.” + +He had been down half an hour when, as the second mate and I stood +watching the cloud approach nearer, an angry, white glare now below +it, suddenly, without a second’s warning, like a blast from a cannon, +the wind fell upon us, laying the ship far over, although the spars +were almost naked. In a few moments Captain Scruggs rose out of the +companion-way and stood for an instant, considering the best move; I +have never yet seen him act without thinking, and it doesn’t take him +long to decide. “Shall we double-reef ’em, sir?” said Mr. Rarx, meaning +the upper topsails. “No, sir,” replied the captain; “let the yards run +down and then tie up the sails; call the port watch, sir; all hands +shorten sail.” “Ay, ay, sir,” heartily; and the next moment the second +mate swung himself down the weather-poop-ladder, stopped for a second +to rap on the mate’s door, and then disappeared forward in the wet and +gloom, while we could hear his clear, strong voice crying out above the +howling wind, “All h-a-n-d-s, shorten s-a-i-l.” + +And now what an inspiring scene is enacted as the big ship plunges +forward, now on an upright keel, now heeled far down to leeward by the +fierce puffs which shriek through the rigging with a din which is +absolutely infernal. Standing by the weather-quarter-bitts looms up the +burly form of Captain Scruggs, whose keen, vigilant eye takes in every +detail of the ship and the weather; while the gaunt, motionless face of +the helmsman can be seen through the wheel-house windows, illumined by +the glow from the binnacle light. In another moment a dull, rumbling +sound is heard forward: it is the upper foretop-sail-yard running down, +and then the dim figures of fifteen or sixteen yellow-clad sailors can +be perceived as they jump into the rigging and claw out along the yard +to windward and to leeward, utterly unmindful of the pelting rain which +stings their faces, or the quick, tremendous rolls which one would +think must whip them off into the sea. Oh, bold and valiant seamen, +toiling so well and so silently up there in the gale and darkness, +truly, ye are the bravest and the least rewarded of men! + +In another hour the ship was under the shortest canvas thus far,--lower +topsail, foresail, reefed main-sail, and spencer,--bending over to the +blast, the wind now rushing through the shrouds with that grand, deep +hum like the whirr of powerful machinery. + +Throughout the night we kept ploughing ahead through an ever-increasing +sea, with showers of buckshot hail rattling overhead like storms of +bullets, varied now and then with heavy dashes of spray against the +cabin-house. + +At eight this morning, though, the wind had so moderated that we +set the upper topsails, the ship wallowing continuously in a big +head-sea which had made during the night. At noon, though, it began +to breeze up once more, and at one o’clock the cry rang through the +ship, “All hands, reef the maintop-sail.” Again the men trotted up +the weather-rigging and turned in a double reef in less than twenty +minutes; not bad for a merchantman. It is curious to see the delight +with which an order to shorten sail is invariably received by a ship’s +company on the approach of heavy weather. No matter what their humor at +the moment may be, they always seem actually pleased when the expected +order comes from the after-guard; and, with eager glances over their +shoulders at the approaching squall, they leap into the shrouds and +race aloft to see who shall be the first over the rim of the top. + +For the first time we, to-day, had stocking-leg duff for dinner. It +consists usually of a quantity of stewed dried apples wrapped up in +a roll of dough and boiled in a piece of cheese-cloth. It is by no +means a bad substitute for apple-dumpling, and with good sauce is +always hailed at sea with extravagant joy. The name originated in the +forecastle, where the duff is always boiled in the leg of a stocking. +Latitude, 50° 48′ south; longitude, 64° 34′ west. + + ++July 9+ + +At twelve o’clock last night it began to blow hard from west-northwest, +and we went on deck this morning to find a fresh gale from that +quarter, with a surprisingly heavy sea, considering the proximity of +the land, for the weather-shore was not more than sixty or seventy +miles away. The ship was under the lower topsails, foresail, reefed +main-sail, and spencer, going well and easily, a couple of points free, +heading into the land for smoother water. Gracious, how the wind yelled +around us this forenoon, drenching the ship fore and aft with the tops +of the foaming seas, which the gale whipped like the blowing of froth +from a vat of beer! In the severest puffs the wind certainly rose to +force 10; and on one occasion, when sliding down the weather-side of a +sea, being simultaneously struck by a heavy blast, we dipped the lee +poop-rail into the sea. At breakfast the skipper said, “There was sharp +lightning in the sou’west this morning, early, and when you see this +off Cape Horn, look out for bad weather and snug her down.” I should +think so, with the barometer at 28.98. + +A new bird has made its appearance. It is of a light slate color, looks +and flies like a Mother Carey’s chicken, and is familiarly called by +sailors the Ice Bird, being supposed to exist chiefly in the vicinity +of ice. They are very cheerful little creatures, though, and being +small and light, were whisked about by the gale like scraps of paper. + +We are just abreast now of the damp, dreary Falkland Islands, which, +if I mistake not, form the southernmost of all of Great Britain’s +colonies; she may possess islands which are farther south than these, +but they are not strictly colonies. The group comprises some two +hundred islands, though there are only two of any importance,--East +and West Falkland. The area of the former is three thousand square +miles, being considerably larger than Rhode Island, and contains the +most important settlement, Stanley, a town of one thousand inhabitants. +The climate of the Falklands is extremely healthy and equable, the +average temperature for the two midwinter months being 37°, that of +the two midsummer ones 47°; and although in the corresponding latitude +and the precise longitude of the southern part of Labrador, ice seldom +forms of sufficient thickness to allow skating. The weather, however, +is excessively damp. But, though there are generally two hundred and +fifty wet days in the year, the total annual precipitation is but +twenty inches, or one-half that of New York; the greater portion of the +moisture descending in the form of fogs and dense drizzles. More than +fifty vessels a year call at Stanley Harbor, and being so close to Cape +Horn, in the vicinity of which more ships are damaged by the elements +than in any other region in the world, it is natural that a ship-yard +and chandlery for the repair of sailing ships should pay extremely +well. But, say the deep-water skippers, woe to the vessel which falls +into the clutches of Stanley Harbor; it is almost impossible to escape +in less than six months, and the most exorbitant prices are asked for +absolutely necessary things. The last vessel of any size which put into +Stanley for extensive repairs was the British ship “Pass of Balmaha,” +which was detained there for nearly a year. It is stated that the +ship-yard, etc., pays forty per cent. on the investment. + +At one o’clock this morning we passed Cape Virgins at the Atlantic +entrance to the Straits of Magellan, distant about seventy-five miles, +and at eleven this morning Mr. Rarx saw the land on the weather-bow, +and presently the lonely, barren shores of Tierra del Fuego rose +faintly out of the sea and appeared also on the port bow, as though +we were sailing into the heart of a deep bight, as indeed we were. +Before long great ice-covered peaks began to appear, and I asked the +skipper if he was going to keep away for the Straits of Le Maire. “No,” +he replied, “I’m not going through now for several reasons; in the +first place, I think the wind will head us in the straits, and in the +second place, as long as this wind keeps on I’m going to heave to under +the land when we get farther down. What’s the good of going through? +As soon as we showed ourselves outside Staten Land there’d be this +westerly gale, with who knows how much sea; then there’s a two-knot +current settin’ to the eastward, and this, with three points of leeway, +would send us to leeward like a cask. Better lie snug inside than go +smashin’ into those seas. In a day or two perhaps we can go through the +Straits of Le Mar.” It is odd that every ship-master whom I have ever +heard mention these straits should call it Le Mar instead of Le Maire. +Captain Scruggs added that we would have fine views of Tierra del +Fuego later on, as he was going to run down to within ten miles of the +land; we are therefore anticipating a very great treat. + +It is utterly impossible to fitly describe these sunsets or to do +justice to the wild grandeur of the scene as the orb slowly and +majestically settles into the sea among the far-away, golden-cushioned +clouds. In the tropics the sun seems to drop suddenly behind the +horizon; but in these high latitudes, he sinks so hesitatingly that it +appears as though he were loath to bid us good-night. The air at this +time of day is most wonderfully transparent here, with a sparkle of +frost in the atmosphere; while the clouds, being almost exclusively +of the stratus variety, stretch across the horizon in layers of fiery +embers, with sometimes a gorgeous fringe of cloud-fleece crowning the +scene with a coronet of dazzling splendor; while if a heavy bar of +dark cloud extends almost to the sky-line, the sun will be observed +glittering beneath it upon the crests of the far-distant seas, with the +appearance as of a phalanx of golden breakers. + +The heavens on this side of the Cape seem to be always clear with a +westerly wind, even when blowing a gale; and as the twilights are +exceedingly long, the days so far are anything but disagreeable. The +dismal, rainy weather will come when we get over beyond the longitude +of the Horn. Gradually the sun is getting lower at noon, the altitude +to-day being but 14°, while the orb rises at a point about northeast +by north and sets in the west-northwest. It is a significant fact that +at twelve o’clock to-day we were exactly abreast of the southernmost +extremity of the mainland of the world. Cape Horn is generally +regarded as this point, but the Horn itself is naught but an island, +the farthest south of the great archipelago of Tierra del Fuego; the +culminating promontory of South America being Cape Froward in the +middle of the Straits of Magellan, one hundred and twenty-two miles +north of the Horn. Latitude, 53° 54′ south; longitude, 66° 6′ west. + + ++July 10+ + +All night we have been lying off and on under shelter of the coast, +waiting for a favorable slant. Under easy sail, the lower topsails and +foresail, we approach to within six or eight miles of the land; and +then wearing round, stand to the northward for twenty miles or so, +repeating the manœuvre slowly, never making more than two miles an +hour. The wind still holds to the westward, blowing a moderate gale, +but with perfectly smooth water here where we are. On the other hand, +outside it is doubtless blowing a hard gale with a heavy sea; as the +skipper put it, “Outside it’s a regular Cape Horn snorter. I lay in +here six days with a westerly gale three years ago. All ships, you +know, lie in here when the wind is like this till they get a slant. You +see, if we went outside now, while we could get to the s’uth’ard all +right, to-morrow at noon we’d likely be a hundred miles to the east’ard +of where we are now. As for goin’ through Le Mar, I wouldn’t try it +with the wind to the north’ard of nor’west.” + +So here we are in water as free from swell as a Central Park lake, +taking things very comfortably indeed. But if the sea is free from +swell, it is continuously whipped into foam by the succession of +tearing snow-squalls which strike us with seemingly cyclonic fury. At +eleven o’clock, for instance, it will calm down to a royal breeze; +at 11.10 it will be blowing a full gale, accompanied with a driving +snow-storm, which whirls the flakes along in a horizontal tempest; +and as the temperature was at 33° all day, the drifts lay in the +scuppers until shovelled overboard. How cosy and cheerful it is to +come down to the great, glowing stove from one of these black squalls +and the roaring wind and the sleet and hail, which feel as though +they were drawing blood as they sting the face with a fury which is +simply resistless! For below everything is delightfully comfortable +at a temperature of 65°, and we draw near to the red coals and shiver +composedly as we listen to the watch hauling around the yards to the +cry of “wear ship.” + +We will never forget the spectacle which met our eyes this morning +half an hour after daybreak. Right before us lay the bleak shores of +Tierra del Fuego, stretching from east to west as far as the eye could +see, the wildest, grandest coast which the mind can conceive. Sheer +down into the sea fell its almost vertical walls of rock and steep, +rugged hills, with their black gorges and frowning chasms filled with +the snow which had fallen heavily during the night. Farther inland +extended a broad expanse of rolling plateau covered with small knolls; +and then in all their desolate sublimity rose the magnificent range +of snowy mountains, thousands of feet above the sea, clad in their +eternal mantle of dazzling white. I have never before seen such a +picture as that presented by this deserted, volcanic land. The gray, +mournful hills and snow-clad Alpine peaks, now buried in a raging +snow-squall, now rearing their ice-crowned summits far above the +mists which shrouded their less exalted companions, filled the mind +with the idea that their Maker, displeased at His own handiwork, had +abandoned forever these lonely shores to the gloomy pall of cloud +which usually enfolds the land in its cold, clammy embrace, and to the +fierce, wild gales which sweep everlastingly through its gaunt and +spectral mountains. What eerie fancies the dark and powerful genius +of Edgar Allan Poe could wreathe about this fantastic, uncouth land! +Oh, for a day’s wandering through those valleys and ravines, as cold +and cheerless as the moon itself! And how I envied the “Beagle’s” men +their months of sojourn amidst the grandeur of these fascinating hills! + +Some curious forms are to be seen in connection with many of these +peaks. The most conspicuous landmark consists of three hills called +the Three Brothers, from twelve to sixteen hundred feet in height; +ship-masters always look for them, as they can then tell exactly where +they are. One of the loftiest of the ice-peaks, a mountain fully five +thousand feet high, bears a strong resemblance to the Matterhorn when +the shadows of evening fall across its great snow-cliffs; another +looks singularly like the rounded cone of Cotopaxi. And so it goes, +one peak apparently more beautiful than its neighbor, till the eye is +bewildered gazing upon such wonderful Antarctic scenery. How intensely +interesting it must be to pass through the famous Straits of Magellan +and look upon the wonderful panorama which is revealed at every turn +of the rudder! Steamers are the only vessels that go through now in +either direction, as the channel is very tortuous and the currents are +powerful and treacherous. The experiment was at one time considered by +the Chileans of maintaining a fleet of large tow-boats at Cape Virgins +to tow vessels through the straits; but it was concluded that the ships +would have to be taken so far out into the Pacific beyond Cape Pillar +to get an offing, which would frequently be impossible on account of +westerly gales, that the project was abandoned. The expense of towing, +too, would be very great, as four hundred miles separate Capes Virgins +and Pillar, and no ship-master, of course, would tow to the eastward, +as there is nearly always a fair wind coming around this way, so that +the tug-boats would have to return empty-handed. + +The climate of this country is as equable as that of the Falklands, +though even more humid. The temperature seldom falls below 30° even in +July; but, on the other hand, it seldom rises above 50° in midsummer, +and the wind at all times is extraordinarily cold and penetrating. +In spite of this, however, the natives pass their lives in absolute +nakedness, their sole protection against the rigors of the inhospitable +climate being a smearing of oil upon their bodies, and in this state +they go out to meet vessels passing through the straits. It seems +almost inconceivable that human beings can live thus in such severe +weather, for their exposure is infinitely greater than that of the +Esquimo even in his temperature of minus 70°, for the latter is warmly +clad and housed. The Yahgans, as the inhabitants of the lower portion +of the archipelago are called, are of particularly low intelligence, +and, according to Dr. Fenton, they not infrequently kill and eat the +old and useless women of the tribe. Their language comprises about +thirty thousand words, but, strangely enough, only five numerals. + +Since 1881 the eastern portion of Tierra del Fuego, together with +Staten Island (usually called by sailors Staten Land), has belonged to +the Argentine, and the western end to Chile, the boundary-line being +supposed to run from Cape Espiritu Santo due south to Beagle Channel, +the only settlement within hundreds of miles being Punta Arenas (Sandy +Point) on the Patagonia side of the straits, where the Chileans have a +convict and coaling station. The Straits of Magellan were discovered by +the celebrated Portuguese of that name, though he spelled it Magalhães, +who sailed through them in 1520. If any one wishes to look at a +remarkable sight, let him possess himself of one of Imray’s charts of +Tierra del Fuego and examine the prodigious number of channels, fjords, +and inlets in this remote and vast archipelago which forms the abode +of eight thousand people as low in the gauge of civilization as can be +found upon the earth. + +I wonder how many persons are aware of the fact that the famous old +“Dreadnaught” laid her bones upon the bleak rocks of Tierra del Fuego +as her final resting place! She drifted ashore near the Straits of +Magellan, while on a voyage to San Francisco, during a heavy swell +in a dead calm, with her main-sky-sail set. What a sorrowful end for +that grand old ship, the “Wild Boat of the Atlantic,” the queen of the +clippers, the fastest of all the great fleet which sailed the ocean +from Sandy Hook to Queenstown! Peace to her remains in her grave by +these iron-bound shores! Latitude, 54° 19′ south; longitude, 65° 45′ +west. + + ++July 11+ + +Late yesterday afternoon the sun astonished us by bursting out in +glorious splendor, and for the two remaining hours of daylight we +sailed along parallel with the land distant only eight miles, in plain +view of the Three Brothers, past Cape St. Vincent and Thetis Bay. +Truly, the days are none too long now, for the sun rises at 8.30 and +sets at 3.30, so that on dark days--and there are plenty of them here +now--we have not more than six hours of what can be called daylight. +Last night was very fine, too, with an almost full moon soaring +through a cloudless sky. Throughout the earlier part of the evening we +continued to hold an easterly course, for the captain wanted to have +a look at the Straits of Le Maire to consider the chances of going +through at daybreak. Some little time after we had finished supper, +about seven o’clock, I think, we caught sight of the huge, snow-bound +cliffs of Cape San Diego, the southeasternmost extremity of Tierra +del Fuego, lying calm and cold in the white moonlight, and a little +later we opened out the clear water of the Le Maire Straits. Then we +saw outside a thick bank of woolly cloud low down in the southwest, +and the skipper concluded that he wouldn’t risk going through the next +day, as that bank was the infallible indicator of a heavy blow. Added +to this, too, was the long, heaving swell of the Southern Ocean piling +in through the fourteen miles of open water in the straits, so we wore +round and stood to the northward again. It was very pleasant last night +on deck, for though it was blowing hard the lee side of the wheel-house +made a delightfully snug retreat, and, enveloped in mountains of +rugs and shawls, we sat there in the deck-chairs till nearly eleven, +discussing the voyage and enjoying the clear, soft moonlight. + +We awoke this morning to the howling of the wind and Captain Scruggs’s +voice raised in furious anger, the helmsman sustaining the full shock +of the vocal hurricane. It was the unhappy Brün, who throughout the +voyage has suffered more than any one else from the temper and violence +of both captain and mates. “Hey you, what the blank’s the matter with +yer? Put yer wheel hard down there and let her come up to the wind. The +other way, the other way. Don’t yer know the difference yet between up +and down, eh? What the blank did yer come to sea for anyway? You’re +a haymaker, that’s what you are. Look at the ship now; d’ye want to +get her aback? Hard up yer wheel; hard up, you blank-blanked farmer’s +hound! How yer headin’ now?” + +“Nor’west by south, sir,” answered the poor devil, nearly out of his +head. “Now, by the jumpin’----” Here the wind cut off the rest, but +there was a tumultuous scuffle of feet, and I could very well imagine +the scene which was being enacted overhead; so as quickly as possible +we dressed and went on deck to find a fresh gale blowing from the +westward, with a very steep, quick sea. It was just daybreak and both +sky and sea had a very ferocious aspect, the atmosphere being charged +now and then with long spears of sleet. After looking at the weather +for a few minutes I happened to glance to leeward, and was almost +stunned to behold the ponderous headland of Cape St. Anthony, at the +western end of Staten Land, towering into the sky, not more than +three miles away! No wonder the old man was almost in convulsions. +“We must be in the Straits of Le Maire,” said I to my wife. And so +we were. It appears that Captain Scruggs had determined to try it, +and had gone half-way through, when, at the eleventh hour, he decided +that he couldn’t fetch by the land; and as the wind came on to blow a +gale which the woolly bank had foretold, he wore ship to stand to the +northward once more. He probably miscalculated the strength of the +current, which runs through the straits with astonishing velocity, +often reaching five knots an hour, for all at once the mate, whose +sight in semi-darkness is better than the skipper’s, called out, “Land +on the lee, sir.” Our position was really one of great peril, for we +were on a dead lee shore and unable to carry sail enough to double +the point with any degree of certainty. If we didn’t weather it, it +was good-by for all hands, for even now we could see the great surges +seething against that terrible coast, where the land is so bold that a +ship may lay her jib-boom end head on against the cliffs and still have +fathoms of water beneath her keel. With the canvas which was on her at +the moment, lower topsails and foresail, it was an impossibility for +the ship to hold her own, and as quickly as possible a double-reefed +maintop-sail was set, the difference in going to windward being felt +at once. But could she carry it? She _must_, for the lives of +twenty-seven persons depended upon the ship’s weathering Cape St. +Anthony. No one thought of breakfast, and at half-past eight it was +blowing harder than ever, and in the heavy, windward rolls it seemed +as though the masts themselves would succumb to the terrific puffs. +From the shore we must have presented a magnificent spectacle indeed, +had any one been there to witness the struggle going on between man’s +skill and Nature’s power. Slowly we forged ahead; but slowly and far +more certainly we drove down toward the foaming rocks; and all hands +by this time, even the most callous of the sailors, realized that we +were fighting in earnest now, fighting to save the ship. Not a word +was spoken by any one; the men were collected at the weather-rail in +the waist watching the land draw nearer and nearer, while the captain +stood on the cabin-house motionless, except when he slightly revolved +his arm as a signal to the helmsman to hold her up all he could between +the puffs. Oh, how deserted and bleak the immense gray-brown cliffs +and snow-streaked hills of Staten Land appeared, broken now and then +by gigantic fissures which extended far inland between vertical walls, +against which the sea broke furiously, throwing cascades of spray high +into the air! Astern, too, the view was equally rugged and grand, for +across the Straits of Le Maire we could see the ragged coast of Tierra +del Fuego and the massive white cone of the Bell Mountain rising up +beyond the Bay of Good Success. + +All at once it became apparent to us that we were holding a better +wind, the land no longer seemed to advance upon us, and at the end of +another half-hour, during which no one seemed to scarcely breathe, to +our unspeakable joy it was plain that the worst was over and that, bar +accident, we would fetch by without further anxiety; and presently the +skipper turned to Louis, the Frenchman (for this splendid seaman had +steered the ship beautifully since eight o’clock), and said, “Now give +her a good rap-full”; in thirty minutes more all danger was over and we +stowed that upper maintop-sail which had done such noble work. + +One +P.M.+ The wind has risen to a full gale with puffs of +almost hurricane force; and though we are still protected by the land, +the sea is running high, probably thirty feet from crest to trough, +and breaking in an ugly manner. At noon the order was passed, “All +hands haul up the foresail.” This was the first occasion on which it +was blowing too hard to carry that sail; and when it has to be stowed +it is blowing what sailors call a heavy gale. The wind, indeed, almost +blew the breath back into one’s throat; but the brave old ship behaved +finely, and after the foresail was hauled up, no matter how high or +fast the advancing wave was or how suddenly it broke, the back-wash +would rush out from the vessel’s side, and, meeting the on-rushing sea, +they would shoot far up into the air, to be blown in drift all over +the ship, while she rode calmly and safely over the crest. We have not +set the spencer lately, as we have been wearing every few hours, which +would necessitate brailing it up every time; I was surprised that the +captain didn’t set it this morning, but he seemed to depend more upon +the maintop-sail. + +There are two vessels to windward knocking about under easy sail +as we are,--one a small bark, the other a large four-masted ship, +square-rigged all over,--waiting for a slant. My wife has recovered +her equanimity now (about three in the afternoon), for she was +not unnaturally upset by the events of this morning. She behaved +astonishingly well, though, during that crucial hour, and her courage +and fortitude cannot be too highly commended. Latitude, 54° 20′ south; +longitude, 64° 30′ west. + + ++July 12+ + +It came on to blow so hard yesterday afternoon that tackles were put on +the tiller, and a little before four o’clock the ship was hove to, so +that when we went on deck at eight bells, after writing up yesterday’s +journal, the ship was riding the seas smoothly and dryly. Perhaps it +wasn’t absolutely necessary to heave the ship to, though she was far +more comfortable that way, the difference being quite remarkable. The +first object which attracted us as we went on deck was a three-masted +ship head-reaching past us on the starboard tack under lower topsails +and foretop-mast stay-sail, distant about half a mile. When yachts pass +each other on opposite tacks they lie so close to the wind that they +cross at right angles to each other, thus: But when two square-riggers +pass each other, close-hauled, they are so far off the wind, especially +in a high sea, that they run past each other parallel. This shows how +the stranger and ourselves passed by: It did not require much of an +eye to discern that this was the Frenchman, the “La Pallice,” which +we spoke about ten days ago bound round the Horn from Hamburg; and +I must say that she commanded admiration as she slowly ran by us in +the gathering dusk, a beautiful specimen of the iron ship-builder’s +art. As previously mentioned, the relieving tackles were put on the +tiller at about four o’clock, after the wheel had thrown the helmsman +completely over itself and through the lee wheel-house door, for he +clung heroically to the spokes. + +[Illustration] + +When the “La Pallice” was about half a mile astern, she put her helm +up to wear round on the same tack which we were on. At that moment the +whole spectacle was a most thrilling one, ourselves plunging into a +fierce head-sea, the flocks of sea-fowl whirling through the gale, and +the angry sky, each contributed its part to the sombre picture; while +a great rent in the western clouds cast a broad shaft of light through +the gloom full upon the big Frenchman, now in the act of wearing. Even +Captain Scruggs and the second mate were impressed with the solemnity +of the scene until they were attracted by the actions of the stranger. +She had now worn completely around on the port tack, and as she had +passed us so close to windward, we all thought that she would come +up on our lee-quarter. But what is this? Can it be possible that her +captain is going to try to put himself on our weather to show how his +ship can hold a wind? He can scarcely be so mad as that. On comes the +ship, however, nearer and nearer; fathom by fathom she hauls up on +us till she is not more than a quarter of a mile astern and not two +hundred yards to windward, and we can plainly see the whole of her +forefoot, as her great bows, shearing through a sea, are flung high +up, and then come crushing down in a smother of foam. All of our men +have crowded to the side, for here is a spectacle indeed: a vessel +bearing down upon another hove to and without steerage-way! However, +she has still time to put her wheel up and pass under our stern; but +no such notion is entertained by the maniac in command of her, and he +is pinching her till her weather-leeches shiver in his mad endeavor +to pass us to windward; and as the ship rises to a sea and pauses for +an instant on its crest, it seems as though she would topple right +down upon us. At this juncture Captain Scruggs begins to grow anxious, +as well he might, and mutters, “Is that d---- fool really going to +try it?” Five minutes more pass, and it becomes evident that we must +get out of her way or be cut down by that sharp iron stem. Now this +is quite a long job, being hove to, for it would be at least several +minutes before we could gather headway. But we must do something, so +the skipper sings out, “Cast off those tackles,” and two men are sent +to the wheel. Anxiously we watch to see her head fall off, but she +stubbornly hangs. “Square that crojjick-yard.” This is done; and then +very heavily and clumsily we fall off and begin to gather way. So +close are we to the Frenchman now that we could talk to those on board +if the wind were not so strong. But we are not out of danger yet, for +the French skipper seems possessed of a devil, and follows us up, as +his vessel appears to handle like a yacht. It is but a few minutes +more, though, until we have put half a mile of clear water between +ourselves and M. Crapeau, and the danger is, for the time being, a +thing of the past. + +All through the night, though, this demon ship haunted us, as if we +were a magnet which resistlessly attracted her iron hull. I believe +that if Captain Scruggs and the second mate could have laid hands on +the French skipper, they would have strangled him. At supper, whither +we repaired after the excitement, the captain delivered the following +address: “If you see an English, or a Dutch, or a German, or a Danish, +or a Norwegian, or an American vessel near you, don’t be afraid, for +he’s all right. But if it’s a Frenchman or an Eyetalian, get behind the +horizon just as soon as you can, for nobody can tell what he’s goin’ to +do.” + +During the night sail was made, the wind having dropped to force 7, and +this morning broke fine, clear, and cold, and showed us the frog-eater +to windward. Will it be credited that no sooner did he catch sight of +us than he started down the wind toward us? At least, so it looked; but +he had only squared away for Cape St. John, at the other end of the +island, having evidently given up all hope of the Le Maire Straits. + +We were presented with a beautiful view of the middle part of Staten +Land this morning at eleven o’clock. It differs from the western end +in that the snows, instead of being confined to the upper half of +the mountains, appeared to reach down to the sea itself. How silent +and cold the hills looked with the sun striking the sharp peaks and +throwing its purple shadows across the great snow-fields between! So +dazzling were the mountains that, had we not known them to be land, we +would have supposed that they were icebergs. It is singular that such a +scene is not one of desolation, but of immutable repose, and seems to +partake of that calm, fascinating peace and quiet which so irresistibly +attracts explorers to the Polar seas. It was a vista of enchantment, +and it was difficult to believe that in the region of Cape Horn there +existed scenes of such surpassing loveliness. + +It was the captain’s intention to try the straits once more this +afternoon; but, alas! the implacable westerly winds began to lash out +again; and it is now, 3.30 +P.M.+, blowing as hard as ever, +the sky is covered with heavy snow-clouds, and everything is gloomy +and dreary once more. We now have to light the lamps below to read by +soon after two o’clock; this is the third day of westerly gales, and +goodness knows how long they may have been blowing before we got down +here; these are the winds which keep ships off Cape Horn for a month at +a time. One of the most arduous and protracted passages of the Horn was +that of Lord Anson on his famous voyage in 1740-41, when he was three +months in doubling the stormy Cape; while in modern times the cases +of the British ships “Natuna” and “The Hahnemann” offer examples of +what the weather can do down here. They each made passages within the +last year of about two hundred and thirty days from Great Britain to +San Francisco. The “Natuna” had a particularly hard passage; she made +four distinct attempts to round the Horn, but was driven back so far +each time that Captain Fretwurst decided to square away for the Good +Hope passage, which he did, running down the eighty-five degrees of +longitude which separate the capes in nineteen days. The cargo was a +miserable one, cement and creosote, and while off the Horn some of the +casks containing the latter were stove, and the drinking-water became +tainted with the disagreeable stuff. To the eastward of Good Hope the +parrels of several of the yards carried away in a gale of wind, and the +captain had to lash them with chains and wire, while he ran away over +into 130° west before hauling up to the northward. The other vessel, +“The Hahnemann,” had just as hard a passage, though she stuck to Cape +Horn, and her captain died during the voyage. About eighty-five guineas +premium had been paid on both vessels. + +A curious phase of the weather to the northward and eastward of the +Horn is that a westerly gale generally doesn’t blow steadily for more +than twelve hours, when it will clear up for a while and then begin +again; while fine, clear nights often succeed the most villanous +weather during the daytime. + +This morning we sent down the three sky-sail-yards and secured them on +top of the forward house; this is the practice of some ship masters, +while others never do so; but to strike them must certainly greatly +relieve the strain on the backstays, for each sky-sail-yard, including +sail and gear, weighs about seven hundred pounds, and the leverage +of a ton one hundred and sixty feet from the fulcrum must be very +considerable. Latitude, 54° 20′ south; longitude, 64° 20′ west. + + ++July 13+ + +All last night it blew a fresh breeze and we gradually fell away to +leeward, and at two o’clock this morning the captain decided to abandon +Le Maire and kept off for Cape St. John. When we went on deck after +breakfast (it was too dark to see anything before eight o’clock) we +were startled at the sight. Broadside on, and parallel with our course, +lay the extreme eastern end of Staten Land, distant not more than two +miles, with the tiny, cosy harbor of St. John just abeam. So close to +the land were we that we could easily see the stunted evergreens that +covered the hills up to the snow-line, which is much higher here than +towards the middle of the island, where the breakers seem to fling +their spray upon the fields of snow; while high up on a rugged mountain +side there stood an isolated, lonely pine-tree, bringing to mind those +exquisite lines of Heine: + + “Ein Fichtenbaum steht einsam + im Norden auf kahler Höh’, + ihn schläfert, mit weisser Decke + umhüllen ihn Eis und Schnee. + + Er träumpt von einer Palme, + die fern im Morgenland + einsam und schweigend trauert + auf brennender Felsenwand.” + +Now that we had approached so closely we hoped to get some photographs +of the hills, especially when the sun, bursting from a cloud on the +horizon, threw his horizontal rays upon the distant peaks. But, alas! +they showed up as nothing but a blur upon the finder. St. John, +comparatively speaking, looked like a snug, comfortable little place, +but hardly such a one as a man would voluntarily choose to winter in, +as do a colony of hardy sealers. The harbor seems to be formed by a +neck of land projecting out from the right-hand side of the entrance, +upon the verge of which we perceived the diminutive light-house +which guides the rugged South Shetland seal-catchers into safety. On +the port hand going in, over against the light-house, rises a lofty +cone composed of a single huge crag, standing sentry-like over the +safe harbor within; while roundabout on all sides tower great, dark, +scowling mountains and vast precipices, the harbor being in reality +naught but a cleft in the hills, after the manner of a Scandinavian +fjord. Yet the wild beauty of the place enchants one, and long before +we had lost sight of the little light-house I had acknowledged to my +wife that, after all, the thought of a winter spent in St. John was not +such a very dreadful one, for the fascination of Nature in her grander +forms far outweighs bodily inconveniences; it is safe to say that von +Humboldt in the deep recesses of the Ecuadorian Andes and Hooker in +the awful solitudes of the Himalayas often longed for even the rude +comforts provided in a settlement like St. John. + +We looked in vain with the glasses for the little steamer which makes +regular, monthly trips to the Falkland Islands and at times even to +Montevideo; but she was not visible, and was no doubt away on one of +her voyages. A truly turbulent life in one sense this one on the little +vessel, but hardly so dreary as the lives of the seal-fishers who +winter at St. John, which is, I believe, the southernmost permanent +settlement on the globe, and from October to April penetrate deep into +the Southern Ocean in pursuit of their livelihood. + +Two strange, natural formations attract the attention far out on Cape +St. John. The first is a mass of gray rock perched upon the very brim +of a vertical cliff, almost overhanging the surf that boils furiously +around it, bearing a striking resemblance to an ancient feudal castle; +and one can see, as it were, the high walls with heavy battlements, and +the lofty crenellated towers of the massive edifice. The second object +is another monolith so closely resembling the Sphinx that one starts on +first catching sight of it, for it seems impossible that mere chance +could produce so accurate a counterpart of the famous Egyptian monument. + +Well, we have seen Staten Land almost in its entirety; and if we didn’t +have the satisfaction of passing through the Le Maire Straits, we went +a third of the distance in last Sunday morning; and we have beheld the +cape and settlement of St. John, where the scenery is, if possible, +even grander and more desolate than at the western end. How odd it is, +by the way, if Cape St. Anthony, near the straits, should have been +so called from the temptation that possesses mariners to pass through +instead of going around the island, thereby often incurring great risk! + +On issuing into the open sea we fell into a tide-rip caused by the +swift currents meeting at the point of the land, this rip being at +times so heavy as to fill the decks of large ships. A number of +hail-squalls descended upon us here, and as the land at noontime had +grown very dim, at that hour we had what I fear was our last glimpse of +the sorrowful hills of Staten Land. + +We found a long swell outside, but not nearly as much as we had +anticipated, though we are as yet under shelter of the land. As for the +wind, it is now almost calm, the hour being three in the afternoon; +but there is nothing set above the topsails on account of frequent +squalls of considerable violence. The men are now so heavily wrapped +up in clothes as to resemble nothing so much as corpulent mummies. +They have to waddle instead of walk, and many of them have tied pieces +of gunny sacks over their rubber boots. This, singularly enough, is +a wonderful protection against cold; and they assert that if nothing +else is handy, by simply pulling a pair of heavy socks over their boots +their feet do not grow numb. It is strange that it should be so cold +with the mercury no lower than 36°; yet here are stout, hardy men who +have to knock off work sometimes to beat some life into themselves when +the mate isn’t looking. My own clothes now weigh twenty-two pounds, or +seventeen without the boots; this includes three suits of underwear +and a sheepskin coat with the wool on, just as it came from the flank +of the animal. Every one knows how the spectators rattle and shake +at a football game in spite of thick wraps when the thermometer is no +lower than 50°; how much more penetrating it must be here, then, when +the mercury is nearly twenty degrees lower, and when the atmosphere is +charged with that bitterness peculiar to the air at sea in the higher +latitudes! + +It cannot be said that we have done particularly well so far on this +voyage, for we have been nine weeks at sea this day and have only just +pushed out into the Southern Ocean. I wonder how long it will be before +we can point our jib-boom for the north star again? Latitude, 54° 50′ +south; longitude, 63° 36′ west. + + ++July 14+ + +Last night was an almost perfect one, with moonlight nearly as bright +as sunshine and the sky absolutely free from clouds. About the hour +of sunset we witnessed what, for spectacular effects, was perhaps the +finest scenery that we have had yet. At four o’clock all the mists, +etc., that sailors call muck had disappeared, disclosing in its entire +length of fifty miles the south side of Staten Land. This consists +altogether of jagged rocks and fierce, angry peaks shooting up three +thousand feet above the sea. The eastern or St. John end of the island +was wrapped in gloom and shadow, while the rest of the land swept +superbly down toward the west, stretching away in ridges of wonderfully +fantastic beauty, the peaks near the straits soaring up grandly against +a rich crimson glare where the sun had sunk behind a rift in the +clouds. Gradually, however, the light was diffused over the entire +western heavens, changing from soft golden tints to royal purples and +scarlets, which spread over the glorious mountains a cloud-mantle +almost supernatural in its marvellous hues. Imperceptibly, however, the +bright colors began to wane and grow dull, shapes of dun vapor seemed +to rise from the land, and at length darkness fell upon the deep and +the mountains receded till engulfed in the blackness of night. + +The scene on deck at 8.30 was also one long to be cherished, with the +joyous, rosy light of advancing day in the northeast, the full moon +slowly falling, a huge golden ball, behind the western horizon, and the +tall, violet pyramid of the Bell Mountain on Tierra del Fuego rising +out of the sea fair and soft, far away in the northwest. Ah, no one +knows what the real beauties of the sea are until he has made at least +one deep-water voyage in a sailing ship! The flying glimpse of the +Atlantic that one catches from the deck of a steamer or the experiences +of a midwinter voyage to the Mediterranean in a North German Lloyder +gives one no true idea of what ocean life really is. No; to comprehend +the sea in all of its splendid phases one must live on it for months at +a time; for not till then can one fully appreciate that “They that go +down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters; these see +the works of the Lord, and His wonders in the deep.” + +Up to eleven o’clock this morning the weather was perfect and we +carried the top-gallant-sails without trouble; we were heading our +course southwest, and the sun looked down from a cloudless sky. As we +went below at that hour we noticed a small bank dead ahead, but so +insignificant that I didn’t think anything more about it until half an +hour later, when, buried in the ice with Nansen, we became aware that +it was growing very dark. The next second the ship heeled far over, and +some one at the same instant cast off the spanker-halliards, the iron +mast-hoops jingling noisily as the sail ran down. Of course we were +on deck in another moment, and found that the wind had whipped around +seven points and that a heavy squall had struck the ship aback; the +great sails were swelled out inboard against the masts and backstays, +while snow and sleet hurtled through the air in cutting blasts. +Luckily, the top-gallant-sails had been clewed up a quarter of an hour +before; but a large vessel in irons, even under short sail, in bad +weather is a shocking sight. The captain was perfectly self-contained, +however, and executed some rapid and precise manœuvres, no one losing +his head except the mate, who went bellowing around the decks till +brought to by the skipper’s angry commands, “Square that crojjick-yard; +get the spencer brailed up. Call all hands. Stop that noise and single +reef the fore- and maintop-sails.” + +Oh, well hast thou earned thy reputation, boisterous and treacherous +Cape! From bright skies and glorious sun-light we came in fifteen +minutes to reefed topsails, sobbing decks, and flying snow, while the +heavens were completely veiled in that puny cloud, which had expanded +as though by the agency of some black art. “Here comes Cape Horn,” said +MacFoy; and looking to windward, we beheld another sinister squall, +dark with snow, bearing swiftly down upon us. A squall with snow in +it can always be detected by its peculiarly black appearance. They +rapidly increased in number and severity, until now, the middle of the +afternoon watch, the wind seems to have settled down for a steady blow +from somewhere between west and south. The glass is very unsteady at +29.25, 5 +P.M.+ The wind has increased to a fresh gale, while +a heavy swell is rolling magnificently up from the southwest. This is +the first time that we have seen this heavy sea, as heretofore it has +been cut off by Cape Horn itself. Every minute it seems to increase, +and within forty-eight hours we will probably be surrounded by the +huge rollers which have made this region so famous. Even now they +are so large and steady that, as far as the apparent rise and fall +is concerned when below, we might almost as well be in perfectly +smooth water. Our experience of heavy seas has been that the largest +of them do not move rapidly, and at the present time the ship mounts +so leisurely to their summits that one cannot detect the motion. When +below, it is only in the tremendous roll of the vessel as she mounts to +the crests that one is conscious of the height of the seas. + +From existing indications we are going to make quite a good bit of +easting during the next twenty-four hours, for our course now is +south-southeast, and as there is a strong easterly current running +ceaselessly here, southeast will be nearer the true course. At noon we +were thirteen miles north of Cape Horn, but still considerably to the +eastward of it. Latitude, 55° 46′ south; longitude, 65° 48′ west. + + ++July 15+ + +Last evening we prepared for a dirty night, and we got it. As the +captain and I were pacing the poop after supper, the moon then shining +brightly in a clear sky, suddenly, from a bank in the southwest, so low +and thin as to be almost invisible, there appeared a streak of light. +“Wasn’t that a flash of lightning?” asked the captain. “I think it +was,” said I; “it certainly looked like it.” “H’m,” said the skipper. +Closely we watched the southern horizon, and within ten minutes +perceived two more brilliant flashes. A more uncanny effect it would +be difficult to imagine; for, except the insignificant stratum near +the sea-line, no other cloud was visible in the heavens, and the vivid +streaks produced a startling effect in the white moonlight. After a +look at the glass, which stood at 29.15, the captain called the second +mate, who was on watch, and ordered the upper foretop-sail clewed +up and a reef tied in the foresail; the upper mizzentop-sail hasn’t +been set for some time, as it generally comes in when the cross-jack +is hauled up. The wind at the moment was from the west, force 6, a +strong breeze, with that deep swell that seems to be as eternal in the +Southern Ocean as the snows of Mount Everest. Quickly, though strangely +imperceptibly, some small, windy-looking clouds grew and expanded over +the heavens; and from eight last evening until daylight this morning +it was a night of furious squalls, thick snow and hail, and high seas. +Throughout the twelve hours we were under a single-reefed maintop-sail, +ditto foresail and main-sail and the spencer. During the fifteen or +twenty minutes that the squalls lasted the wind blew with terrific +force and shrieked like a thousand steam sirens in the rigging, and +then would follow a light spell, in which we might have carried +everything. + +Our first really hard squall came at 9.30, in the mate’s watch. It +was accompanied with a sweeping snow-storm that drove in great drifts +across the decks, the ship standing up like a church against the blasts +and sliding comparatively dry over the big seas that came piling toward +us out of the gloom, invisible till their foaming tops flashed out +of the darkness to windward. It was a grand, wild scene, and as the +heavier puffs went ripping through the shrouds with a peculiar scream, +I thought, as I looked at the driving snow and the darkness and the +raging ocean, that the Dusk of the Gods had come upon us. This squall +lasted fully thirty minutes, and so heavy was the fall of snow that it +took the watch some little time to shovel it overboard. + +All through the night we were afflicted with these unwelcome visitors, +variety being afforded by hail, which fell to the size of marrowfat +pease, while along the lee alley-way, as that part of the poop is +called between the cabin-house and the rail, crouched the forms of the +seamen, for they are compelled to stay aft every night now, ready at +an instant’s call, and not coiled away napping under the top-gallant +forecastle. The helmsman, too, was kept busy, for every squall seemed +to take us aback more or less, and the air rang with the voice of the +officer of the watch, “Put your wheel up, there!” + +It had never been our lot to witness so dismal a scene as that +disclosed to us at a quarter-past eight this morning. A squall had +just passed over us, and we were at the moment in a sickly calm, with +a high, greasy sea, which broke sluggishly at intervals like frothing +oil; the decks and weather-side of the masts and spars were covered +inch deep with the wet, clammy snow that had just fallen, the canvas +was flapping loudly against the masts in the great heaving rolls, and +that miserable, leaden-hued struggle was passing between the breaking +day and the wan, gibbous moon showing between the ragged clouds, which +casts so wretched and melancholy a light over all objects. A more +oppressive scene it would be impossible to picture, and it was the +moment best suited to him determined upon ending forever his earthly +career; while, as if to increase the desolate aspect, an immense +albatross, nearly white with age, flew circling around the ship, +driving before him the flock of pigeons that hovers continuously near +us. + +A rather distressing thought is that we are now well within the limit +of ice, and that every degree farther south renders more probable the +presence of some of these off-spring of the Antarctic Ice-King. This is +offset, however, by the fact that most of the ice is seen more to the +eastward of the Horn, and that it is usually not at all thick during +the winter season. February is the worst month for those huge ice +islands which render navigation in the Southern Ocean so hazardous an +undertaking. Fortunately, at the summer season actual darkness off the +Horn doesn’t last more than a couple of hours. + +The temperature has fallen, too, and to-day reached the freezing point +of fresh water, sea-water congealing at about 28°. To our surprise, the +sun showed himself at noon, and though the horizon was bad, we got an +approximately good sight, which showed that the orb was only 11° high, +and that we were a degree south of Cape Horn and fifty miles east of +it. Latitude, 56° 58′ south; longitude, 66° west. + + ++July 16+ + +Hove to in a heavy gale, Cape Horn in sight, bearing at noon east by +north distant about fifteen miles! Yesterday afternoon it was very mild +as far as wind was concerned, and I went down on the main-deck and did +a lot of pumping to make up for the days lost through bad weather, +when it was dangerous to try it. From the main-deck the seas looked +infinitely larger than from the poop, the difference in elevation +of six or seven feet making an immense difference in their apparent +height. All through the early part of the night it was fine, and we set +the upper mizzen-top-sail and the spanker. By the way, it is remarkable +that a ship-rigged vessel will steer well with hardly any after-canvas +set. For instance, for some time previously the only sail on the +mizzen was the lower topsail; while forward were a jib, foretop-mast +stay-sail, both topsails, and reefed foresail. + +The squalls, too, eased up as the moon rose, and up to 2 +A.M.+ +the weather was fine. At midnight, though, a sinister movement was +noticed in the aneroid, the needle rising rapidly from 29. Every one +who knows Cape Horn understands what this signifies with a westerly +breeze,--it means a gale of wind. True to precedent, when we went on +deck after breakfast, the ship being then on the port tack, it was +breezing rapidly. After each squall it blew harder and harder, with +proportionally increasing sea, and the skipper ventured the opinion +that we were going to see a Cape Horn “snorter.” At ten o’clock the +main-sail had to come in, the ship from being driven too hard taking +in large quantities of water, especially from the lee side. So both +watches were called, and it was a spirited scene as the sturdy fellows +stretched along the deck, heedless of the seas that thundered aboard +every few minutes, while they manned the weather main-clew-garnet with +a chorus that rose above the gale. Brave? A more courageous lot of men +than Cape Horn foremast hands do not exist! + +Here the old man thought he’d take a hand, though everything was +running smoothly; so he hopped down on deck, sprang up on the +main-hatch, and in thirty seconds so great was the distraction that +the men didn’t know whether they were hauling on the main-buntlines +or the jib-downhaul. The skipper commenced in what was for him a mild +exhortation to “Pull away lively, now; pull away there.” But the men +were thoroughly drenched by this time, and the teeth of the weaker were +beginning to chatter; for of what use are oil-skins to a man in two or +three feet of water, when he is constantly tripping on the slippery +deck and flying headlong as the ship rolls? By and by the skipper began +to swear, and then it was all up with everything; five minutes later he +was in a whirling cyclonic passion. He fairly jigged upon the hatch in +his frenzy, and thumped his chest with his right fist as he clung with +his left to the lee lower maintop-sail-sheet, still urging the men to +“pull away.” At length his temper so flew away with him that he seemed +to strangle, and the last sentence we heard was, “Catch hold of any +d---- thing and haul on it.” + +In spite of him, however, both main-sail and foresail were hauled up +in an hour and a half, the ship being then under lower topsails and +spencer, and the captain announced his intention of wearing round +after dinner, adding, “You could see Cape Horn now if it wasn’t for the +snow.” + +All this time the wind had been increasing, and by the time that dinner +was over it had risen to a full gale. “Land on the lee beam,” sung +out the lynx-eyed mate at one o’clock. We looked; and there, down to +leeward, we perceived the most famous promontory in the world, the +terrible Cape Horn itself, smothered in gloom, rising dimly out of the +sea about fifteen miles away. “Brail up that spencer and stand by to +wear ship.” “Ay, ay, sir,” cheerfully, for a hot meal had put life into +the men. And now there followed a spectacle that it will be impossible +ever to forget. The wind was roaring from the southwest a violent gale, +accompanied with tremendous squalls blowing with inconceivable fury, +swallowing us up in blinding snow. The ocean had assumed a terrible +appearance, white as a snow-drift to windward; while at intervals we +could see the breaking crest of some immense sea, towering high above +the rest in his grand and stately progress. The helm was then put hard +up, the main- and cross-jack-yards were squared, and we fell away dead +before the wind. + +For the next fifteen minutes a scene was enacted that absolutely defied +a description worthy of it. The huge, shaggy seas came rushing along +astern, full sixty feet from crest to trough; and when close by, if +you wanted to follow their progress, you had to throw your head back +as though looking up at a mountain peak, while they shook their white +manes like wild horses, and it seemed as if they must crash over the +stern. But no, the ship rode them superbly, and when she reached +the crest of one, and we looked deep down into that dark-green, +foam-streaked valley astern, we caught our breath as the billows ran +under us and fell thundering upon the main-deck forward. The sight of +the great ship with nothing set but the three lower topsails, flying +before the gale, almost choked you with emotion. It was grand, it was +fearfully sublime. It was the apotheosis of the power and majesty of +God. + +[Illustration: A fifty-foot Cape Horn gray-beard] + +An albatross, too, in a storm is a wonderful sight. No matter how +furious the gale, no matter how fierce the terrific, hurricane squalls +of Cape Horn, the great bird soars up against the blast grim and +serene. Then wheeling, he comes sweeping down on the wings of the gale +at a speed so tremendous that it cannot be less than eighty or even +ninety miles an hour, when, describing a low but immense circle, with +the tip of his lee wing just brushing the tops of the giant seas, he +again takes his flight upward against the storm. No living creature +conveys the idea of boundless freedom so perfectly as the King of +Space, the Wandering Albatross. + +By two o’clock in the afternoon we had the relieving tackles on the +tiller, and when darkness came after a sickly, pallid sunset, it found +us hove to in a mountainous sea, with the same angry squalls yelling in +savage, ruthless glee over this desert ocean. Latitude. 56° 12′ south; +longitude, 67° 24′ west. + + ++July 17+ + +Last night the gale diminished somewhat; but at eleven o’clock the +chain topping-lift of the spencer-gaff carried away, and we had to rig +a makeshift with a tackle until to-day. + +In yesterday’s log I forgot to mention an incident that happened which +came very nearly being a lamentable accident. After we had worn around, +at about thirty minutes past one, while some of the men were hauling +taut the weather forebrace, we were boarded by an enormous sea that +came whooping over the weather-side. The whole of the starboard watch, +including the second mate, were hauling on the brace when the sea +broke on board and fell directly upon them. I never saw anything like +the scene that followed. The men absolutely disappeared from view. It +was as though they had gone through the deck. Only once before had we +seen so great a volume of water on a ship’s deck, and that was during +our first voyage when we were hove down to the turnbuckles in the North +Atlantic. Yesterday it was, at the very least, two feet deep on the +level, and it filled the galley and carpenter-shop, putting out the +fires in the donkey-boiler, and this through the lee doors. During all +this time we looked in vain for the sight of a human being. Not one +was to be seen on the main-deck, and the water was dashing up twenty +or thirty feet into the air at every heave. Gradually it began to +run off, and now and then a clumsy, yellow bundle loomed up out of a +snarl of ropes, sat up for a second, and then went whizzing away to +leeward. Again a man would gain his feet and clutch frantically at +belaying-pins; but before he could support himself his legs would slide +from under him, and he would be swept into the water-ways like a cork +in a sluice. + +When all but a few inches of water had run off, and it was deep only in +the lee scuppers, we perceived a knot of men away aft wedged between +the bitts and the rail not far from the cabin bulkhead, entangled in a +fearful snarl of gear. So tightly were they packed away that at first +it seemed as though there were only two men there; but one by one they +crawled apart till three half-drowned sailors sat wabbling on the deck, +and then we saw that another luckless creature was lying prone in the +scuppers. Slowly and painfully he got his legs under him, and, waiting +for a lurch, with an effort reached his feet. It was Mr. Rarx, one of +the most powerful men on board, and he was gasping for breath. It seems +that they had all been swept aft together, and all were badly used up, +especially Mr. Rarx, who formed the base of the wedge. He says that he +was completely under water for a good deal more than a minute. + +We are beginning to regard deep-water sailors as little short of +heroes. Indeed, they seem to me far more valiant than the battalions +of soldiery that are hurled nowadays against little bands of savages. +From 50° to 50° they and the dark cavern in which they live are soaking +wet; they have no time to change their clothes, and no dry garments to +put on if they had, for often, no sooner have the watch below kicked +off their boots, actually filled to the brim with salt-water, than +comes the cry, “All hands reef the maintop-sail,” and when that is +done, “Haul up the main-sail” rings out, and there are two hours gone +from their watch below. There is no such thing as throwing off their +coats or even oil-skins when they turn in; nor would it be advisable +in a leaky forecastle like this, with half an inch of water on the +floor shooting up in their faces. Yet look at these men as they haul +on the braces in a gale of wind, hardly able to keep their feet. Never +a word of complaint at the weather have I heard yet. Calm and unmoved +in the storms of spray and snow, they sing out as heartily as ever, +grin good-naturedly up at the poop where we are standing dry and +comfortable, and face the crest of a sea that rattles against them as +if it were a summer shower. The more we see of forecastle life the more +difficult is it to understand why men ever ship before the mast for a +Cape Horn voyage. + +It is pleasant to think that that wretched man Goggins was washing +about in his room, too,--pleasant, because he continues to drive and +haze the men down here when they are striving to do their utmost under +such conditions. When he awoke last night in the middle watch he found +several inches of water on the floor of his room, and he is wondering +where it came from. Indeed, we had a shower-bath ourselves last night, +for part of a sea fell on the poop, ran aft against the wheel-house +when the bows rose and then recoiled into our after-window, which was +open, drenching that portion of our room. + +Steam is kept up continuously in the donkey-boiler now, as the men +are getting pretty well used up from exposure and the immense amount +of making and shortening of sail that goes on continuously. Captain +Scruggs believes in taking every single point of advantage in the wind, +and shakes out a reef at the least indication of a lull, each time, of +course, necessitating the mastheading of the yard; though eventually +even he realized that the men were wearing out, and now the donkey does +all the heavy hoisting. Many people think that the engine does all the +trimming of yards, etc., during a voyage, but with the exception of the +passage of the Horn, it is seldom ever in use at sea, and never for +sail-trimming. The chief use to which a donkey is put is in loading and +discharging when in port and heaving in the anchor. + +Well, the wind now, at 3 +P.M.+, is at west, force 8, and we +have set a reefed maintop-sail and spencer. We have drifted about +southeast by east true since yesterday, sometimes hove to, sometimes +headreaching through a heavy sea. The elements are somewhat more +placid, and I must not bring this day’s journal to a close without +extolling my wife’s bravery during the foul weather, for her courage +was remarkable. Only those who have been to sea in a sailing ship whose +main-deck is but seven feet above the water can appreciate what a whole +gale of wind means under such circumstances. Latitude, 57° south; +longitude, 65° 45′ west. + + ++July 18+ + +Land was reported on the weather-beam this afternoon. We think that it +is Barneveld Island, about thirty miles northeast of Cape Horn, and +it bore, when first sighted, northwest. We didn’t do anything at all +during the last twenty-four hours but seesaw up and down, north and +southeast, with the wind at southwest, and we were surprised by a calm +last night from six until twelve o’clock, with a comparatively high +thermometer,--41° at the latter hour,--so that the skipper looked for a +northerly wind during this morning. But no such luck for us; daylight +saw us under a reefed maintop-sail (we had set the main-top-gallant at +midnight) with a moderate gale from the westward, though the sea was +quite smooth. We have entirely lost the long southwesterly roll, and it +is astonishing how that swell does go down if you are only a little to +the eastward of the Cape. For instance, suppose a vessel to be in 57° +south and 68° west, she is almost certain to have this big heave; but +if in 66° west and the same latitude she will be almost entirely free +from it; at least, this has been our experience. + +Great agitation pervaded the ship aft to-day when the discovery was +made that the pumps had not been working properly for twenty-four +hours. In heavy weather the “Higgins” has to be pumped out every two +hours on account of a leak near the rudder-head, although the majority +of wooden sailing vessels have to man the pumps every watch in a +seaway, for they all leak in bad weather. Something was wrong with the +plunger, I believe, and the pumps have been useless for a whole day, +unknown to any one, which in itself seems remarkable, though I must say +that the decks have been so full of water that it has been very hard +to tell whether a stream was coming up from below or not. Therefore +both men and donkey have been alternately pumping without result, and +when the carpenter sounded the well this noon, lo! there were two and a +half feet of water in the vessel, which means nearly twenty thousand +gallons, or about six hundred barrels. By using both sides of the +pumps, however, the engine had them sucking in an hour, doing sixty +revolutions to the minute. There was a violent scene, though, when the +old man learned of the affair, and a still more turbulent half-hour +followed while the plunger was being repaired. + +Here, in the bad, wet weather, for it has been raining for forty-eight +hours, this ship is extremely uncomfortable and disagreeable below, +and the most slovenly one that I have ever seen. To begin with, it +is very dark, for the skylights are absurdly small, and boards have +to be secured on their weather-sides to prevent a repetition of the +river Plate incident, so that the gloom of the interior is that of +a hole in the ground. However, this doesn’t count, for we expected +it. The after-cabin is a rather unpleasant spot, by reason of a +so’wester or two, a dripping black oil-skin, several pair of wet +woollen wrist-protectors, a few greasy magazines, a chart or two, and a +couple of camp-chairs all continually sliding about the floor, making +locomotion an extremely hazardous undertaking. But, upon approaching +the forward or dining cabin, a spectacle meets the eye which would +shake the heart of the stoutest landsman. In the forward end, in a +recess, stands the stove, stayed with iron rods; while surrounding it +on three sides is a permanent aggregation of various objectionable +articles, perfectly appalling. The heater is completely smothered at +all times in ancient, wet garments of the skipper’s, almost in a state +of fermentation, suspended on wires, so that the stove can hardly be +seen. At dinner to-day the following disreputable articles of clothing +hung before the fire, dank and mildewed: two pairs of aged trousers, +two waist-coats, three coats, one overcoat, two mufflers, one pair of +knitted gloves, one handkerchief, and two pairs of socks. From these +garments there issued a peculiarly obnoxious, thin steam, through +which a yellow lamp glowed unhealthily. + +Below, at the base of the stove, and surrounding it as with a +chevaux-de-frise, were two pairs of rubber boots, ditto leather shoes, +ditto felt slippers for boots, two dishes filled with the cat’s +half-devoured food, no one knows how old, a wash-tub half filled with +soaking sheets, a bucket, and a wooden box nearly full of ashes, upon +which reposed a coffee-pot. And when to all this is added the humidity +of this region, which is so dense that moisture condenses on the walls, +and the fact that the mizzen-mast-coat leaks, covering several square +feet of the floor with water, it will be conceded that the interior of +this vessel is distinctly disreputable. Indeed, we never attempt to sit +and read anywhere else than in our own room. Nor are the dishes what +they should be, and I often find a clot of coagulated soup in the ladle +from yesterday’s repast; this latter is, of course, the fault of the +steward, though the best of servants will grow careless if they are not +watched. + +Then the mate is extremely unclean, so much so that even Mr. Rarx said +a day or two ago that he was the dirtiest man whom he had even seen +in a ship’s cabin. He never washes his face and hands to come to the +table, both of which are streaked with soot, lard oil, and goodness +knows what else. The captain is considerably better in this respect, +but his temper seems to be more uncontrollable than ever, and he shouts +at the steward and Sammie as though they were on the foretop-sail-yard +in a gale of wind. He seems to consider it a personal affront every +time that the men come aft on Saturday nights to buy things from the +slop-chest, which he throws at them with scant ceremony. Last night +“Long John” Pettersen asked him for a pair of No. 10 rubber boots in +his cowed, frightened way. “I ain’t got no tens,” cried the skipper; +“here’s nines; take ’em and get out”; and he cast the boots at John, +who promptly dodged, and they struck the stove with a great, clattering +din. + +I will, no doubt, be accused of inhumanity in taking my wife to sea in +such a vessel as this, but we had not the least notion that she would +prove so different from what we supposed her to be, and few persons +would suspect that such things would occur aboard of a ship which +looked so neat and trim in the New York docks. Our previous experience +at sea, we have since discovered, was not of any use to us as a guide +as to what we might expect here. Indeed, in the worst weather off the +Cape of Good Hope the “Mandalore’s” cabin, with its brightly polished +open-grate and shining bird’s-eye maple panelling, would not have +been discreditable to a well-found yacht. Latitude, 56° 14′ south; +longitude, 66° west. + + ++July 19+ + +Hail, mighty sun! Welcome, radiant, glorious monarch! We saw the +luminous orb for ten minutes at mid-day, marking an epoch, for events +off Cape Horn date from the last time that the sun was seen. When day +broke this morning, behold! the sky was clear and everything presaged +at least two hours of bright sunshine. No sooner, however, did the orb +show signs of appearing above the horizon than a cloud-bank arose in +the west which proved to be the mother of a procession of squalls which +covered the sky for the rest of the day, bar a few minutes at noon. But +how we did rejoice for even a glimpse of the heavenly body! For days +we had dwelt in darkness and twilight, and when we caught sight of the +golden disk again it was like the face of an old friend. No one who +has not experienced it can imagine what the gloom of Cape Horn is like +even at mid-day. It has doubtless somewhat the effect of the darkness +of the Polar seas, which, it is said, kills more men than frost and +starvation. Practically, throughout the year the heavens in this region +are wrapped up in a pall of cloud so dense and low as to feel like an +increased atmospheric pressure; and unless one’s spirits are as elastic +as rubber the mind must succumb to the dreary influence of this endless +waste of gray ocean. It is oppressive beyond the power of words; and so +great is the solitude that it is difficult to believe that we are still +on the earth and not floating upon the ocean of another planet. + + “So lonely ’twas, that God himself + Scarce seemed there to be.” + +The sun’s altitude at noon was only 8° 42′, so that he was only about +sixteen diameters above the horizon; but notwithstanding, all hands +hailed him with glad pæans, and deep and mournful was the wailing +when he withdrew. At eleven o’clock, while we were reading below, +the skipper called down to know if we didn’t want to see a regular +old-fashioned squall. So up we went, and upon issuing from the +companion-way were almost literally blown over by a heavy gust. The +ship was hove down till the sea flowed over the lee rail thick and +smooth and dark, like the water on the verge of a cataract; the wind +howled and screeched overhead; spray fell in blinding sheets; while +the snow was positively overpowering and almost smothered us when we +looked to windward. The ship for some time had dragged a double-reefed +maintop-sail, and it was every stitch that she could stand. All +through the day we were bombarded by these squalls, and by three in +the afternoon the wind had once more increased to a fresh gale, with a +wicked, breaking sea which frequently broke on the poop itself. + +How little, how pitifully little departure we made in the last week! +On Tuesday, six days ago, we rounded Cape St. John, and now we are +only a degree farther west! I should think it _was_ hard to make +westing off the Horn. Call it forty miles in a week, for the degrees +of longitude are scarcely thirty-five miles long in this latitude. Six +miles of westing a day! Speaking of the length of degrees, though, it +is remarkable how much farther south of the line the Horn seems (56° +south) than 56° north seems north of it. For instance, the fifty-sixth +northerly parallel passes between Edinburgh and Glasgow, and is not +very far north of Hamburg; yet but few persons would suppose that, +roughly speaking, these cities were in the same relative latitude as +the southern extremity of South America. + +Last evening, just before dark, a sail was sighted about ten miles +to leeward, and was there still this morning. It was a ship, and we +conjectured that she was the “Dowes” until the glasses showed that she +had a standing spanker-gaff, which made her a foreigner. Perhaps she is +the demon Frenchman; may she approach no nearer. + +One of the men at the wheel, Jack Michaels, whispered to me this +morning, “Say, was that land the Diego Ramirez we saw yesterday?” +And when told that we were still east of Cape Horn, the poor fellow +ejaculated, “Oh, my God!” so earnestly and sorrowfully that it spoke +whole volumes for what the men are suffering in the leaky forecastle. +Two men are constantly at the wheel now, and even when the tiller is +lashed and we are hove to, the law compels one man to stand with his +hands on the spokes as though still steering, so as to be ready in case +of accident. Well, it looks as though we were going to have a worse +night than ever for sleeping; last night we got only three hours of +rest. Latitude, 56° 54′ south; longitude, 65° west. + + ++July 20+ + + “The ship drove fast, loud roared the blast, + And southward aye we fled.” + +It came on to blow very hard indeed yesterday afternoon at three +o’clock, just as we had finished writing, and at four it became +necessary to haul up the main-sail and foresail, though both were +reefed. When the skipper sung out, “Clew up the main-sail,” I think +that it was blowing harder than we ever saw it at sea. The captain +said that there was more wind the other day in sight of Cape Horn; +but I think that this was only to contradict. Whether or no, it blew +a fearful gale, though the full strength didn’t last more than three +hours, with, for a while, the worst snow and hail that we have had yet. +The ocean seethed; big seas swept the decks fore and aft like cataracts +every five minutes, and the ship, with nothing showing but the lower +topsails, was bowed down before the blasts like a palm-tree in a +hurricane. We thought that we were surely going to lose the main-sail +through the fault of the wretched mate, who is of no use whatever in +bad weather. It is necessary to observe extreme caution in hauling up +any of the courses in a gale of wind, for the tack and sheet must be +eased off just so, in order that both they and the clew-garnets shall +be perfectly taut until the clews are right up to the yard. If not, the +chance of losing the sails is exceedingly good. Well, the miserable +man, in the midst of a tearing puff, let the main-tack get away from +him. Instantly there arose a frightful slatting, and we expected to +see the strong, new canvas whipped into ribbons, while the great, +ninety-foot mainyard buckled and bent almost like a coach-whip. I hope +never to witness such a sight again. The old man’s state while this was +going on must be left to the imagination; and when a sea swept over +the side, carrying almost every man on the clew-garnets and buntlines +into the scuppers, we feared that his reason was going. After a hard +struggle, though, the gaskets were put on the main-sail, and then the +foresail had to come in. Here the mate, very properly, found something +else to do, and Mr. Rarx, calm and perfect master of himself, slacked +away the tack first; and when the weather-side had been hauled up, he +did the same with the sheet, without the least show of exertion; he is +a splendid seaman. + +At this moment I stepped into the wheel-house to look at the aneroid, +and found the needle actually jumping back and forth from 29.10 to +29.20, with a quick jerk like the second-hand of a clock. This is +known as “pumping” when observed in a mercurial barometer, and occurs +most frequently during cyclones, the cause being sudden changes in the +velocity, and, consequently, force, of the wind. It is interesting +to note that if a barometer is hung against a wall where the wind +will blow steadily upon it at a rate of about thirty feet per second +the height of the barometer is perceptibly increased. Once before we +observed this pumping of the barometer, which happened on the P. and O. +steamer “Khedive,” in the Bay of Biscay, when the glass stood at 28.64. +This is, of course, a very low reading, but it is often eclipsed during +tropical cyclones; indeed, not long ago the British steamer “Foreland,” +at New York, from Hull, reported the barometer at 28.10 to the eastward +of the Banks during a January passage. + +At five yesterday afternoon the force of the wind was greatest, and +the surface of the ocean smoked, and we couldn’t see the jib-boom for +the spume, which flew through the air like steam; yet in the very eye +of the storm the gay little Cape pigeons darted about like sparrows +in a summer shower. They seemed to find a deal to eat on the surface, +and their method of feeding was this: At the instant that an unusually +heavy sea passed they would swoop down into the hollow where it was +almost calm, snatch a few mouthfuls of whatever they found, and as +the next huge sea rushed at them, at the very second before they were +buried in the hissing crest, they extended their wings to the utmost, +the wind struck beneath them, and without any perceptible effort they +rose against the gale, only to drop again in a few moments, and repeat +the operation. It was really very pretty manœuvering, and compelled +admiration at the ease and certainty with which the little creatures +handled themselves even in the heaviest gusts. + +Alas, the poor sailors! They have been continuously wet now for more +than ten days. It is true that from 8 +A.M.+ till eight in the +evening there is a fire burning in a small stove in the forecastle; +but the atmosphere is so extremely humid that the heat doesn’t seem to +affect the forecastle or the men’s clothes. Indeed, it is a grewsome +sight to look into that apartment as I did the other night at seven +o’clock. The port watch were below lying in their bunks with faces +toward the stove, which was all but concealed by dripping, steaming +garments swinging madly in the heavy rolls, water was splashing high up +on the grimy walls from the floor, while a dense, rank vapor pervaded +the place, through which the stove glowed dully, like a headlight +in a fog. Many of the men are now afflicted with the most grievous +perhaps of all the ills with which sailors are cursed in cold, bad +weather,--the dreaded sea-boils. These harassing sores are due to the +friction of oil-skins and other clothes upon the wrists and neck, +continually drenched with salt-water, though the bad condition of +sailors’ blood generally is doubtless responsible for the dreadful +state of the wrists of the sufferers. It is singular that mere friction +combined with cold sea-water should produce such results. Sea-boils or +salt-water-boils, as they are sometimes called, are exquisitely painful +and very sensitive to any rubbing, and they must be bandaged and +poulticed until it is time for the lancing, upon which a sort of core, +like a short, thick piece of sinew, is laid bare, which must be seized +and plucked out. Two of these boils as large as plums will lay a man +up; and any attempt to work him hard generally results in a high fever +and his bunk for several days. Imagine what the suffering of sailors +must be off Cape Horn when these boils are added to fatigue, cold, loss +of sleep from frequent calls of all hands, and to the lethargy that +comes from exposure. I repeat again, why do men ship before the mast? +There are other things to do, and even breaking stones on a highway is +to my mind infinitely preferable. Notwithstanding everything said to +the contrary, the life of a Cape Horn foremast hand is the life of a +beast. It is hard, wearing, and bitter beyond words; and when are added +the kicks and the blows from belaying-pins and knuckle-dusters that the +men are usually served with on American ships by way of dessert, it +is difficult to believe that human beings can survive such privations +and sufferings. Poor fellows! They stumble about the decks with drawn, +haggard faces and two or three with staring eyes. We watched one this +forenoon (it was Louis Eckers) trying to put a watch-tackle strop on +the lee lower maintop-sail-brace; the job amounted to nothing more than +standing on the bitts and twisting a bit of rope around the brace; but +so weak and stiffened was he that another man had to be called in his +stead. Some of the younger fellows are still in pretty good condition, +such as Broadhead, Charley, and Olsen; but most of the older men are +practically half dead. I think the most remarkable of all of a sailor’s +characteristics is the rapidity with which they forget their hardships; +for let Jack get up into the balmy Trades again and all of his misery +and pain vanish, the memory of what he has but just endured fades +away, and when he has been ashore for a week at the end of the voyage, +he is quite ready again to face the snow-thickened gales of Cape Horn. + +All hopes of a rapid passage have now been abandoned, for we have been +ten weeks at sea to-day and are not yet around Cape Horn. It will be +recalled that we were in the longitude of the Cape a few days ago, but +heaven only knows when we can make up what we have lost since then. +Our distance east of the Horn now is not more than seventy-five miles, +and it does seem remarkable that we cannot make those few miles of +westing; and we see now why all the sailing directions say, “Whatever +you do, _make westing! make westing!_” Even though the wind is at +southwest, as we have had it almost constantly, one would think that by +standing well to the southward a ship could get a lay up past the Cape; +but what with a two-knot easterly current, two points of leeway, and +22° of easterly variation, not to mention her being seven points off +the wind under such short canvas, it is actually impossible. A yacht +might do it, for she could go to windward under a storm-try-sail to an +appreciable extent; but if a square-rigger holds her own and makes no +easting on the _port_ tack with the wind blowing hard from the +southwest off Cape Horn, she is doing very well. + +At five this morning the wind backed to south and hope glowed warm in +the hearts of the men; but it didn’t take it long to shift back again +to its old quarter, between southwest and west-southwest, and the old +man now makes no bones about our being real _bona fide_ Jonahs. +It is growing colder, too, the noon temperature being 31°, though no +lower at night, but the wind is as cutting and clammy and dank as the +breath of an iceberg. Some ship-masters, on account of the prolonged +head gales and seas of Cape Horn, prefer the Good Hope voyage when +bound from North Atlantic ports to California or British Columbia; +but while the winds are fair in the Southern Ocean on this course, the +distance is so much greater that it is doubtful whether or not there is +any advantage in it. The latest example is the case of the British ship +“Wasdale,” which reached San Francisco not very long ago, one hundred +and sixty-five days from London _via_ Good Hope, having sailed the +enormous distance of twenty-four thousand five hundred and twenty-six +miles; the Horn voyage averages three weeks less in time than the above +and six thousand miles less in distance. The “Wasdale” must be a smart +ship to cover nearly twenty-five thousand miles in that time. + +It seems very odd that we have as yet met no homeward-bounders, as +we have been several times right in their track; the skipper says, +however, that there are doubtless a dozen vessels within a radius +of fifty miles, all bound to the westward. Latitude, 57° 25′ south; +longitude, 60° 5′ west. + + ++July 21+ + +“Land close aboard on the lee-quarter, sir,” was the startling +information that the mate called down the companion-way about daylight, +as we sat down to breakfast this morning. It didn’t take the captain +more than three or four seconds to reach the deck, and we heard him +cry savagely, “All hands wear ship; lively now, lively.” And none +too soon, for there on the lee beam lay Hermite Island only three +or four miles away. This is one of a cluster known as the Hermite +Islands, being seven in number altogether; they form the culminating +group of the Tierra del Fuegian archipelago, of which Cape Horn is +the southernmost. We must have made more westing than the captain had +estimated, for he had just remarked that we ought to see the Horn +again at nine o’clock. Of course we wore as quickly as the stiffened +arms of the men would permit, and for quite a long while, in a dismal +rain, we ran down parallel with these dreary shores, on which we would +have struck had daylight been a couple of hours later. If our position +of yesterday wasn’t a false one, we did phenomenally well during the +past twenty-four hours, for the land that we first saw this morning, +and which the skipper recognized at once, is eighty miles west of +yesterday’s position. But, good gracious! we were at noon to-day +within eight miles of where we were last Friday in the heavy gale! The +latitude was exactly the same and we were eight miles farther west. +Eight miles in five days. How does that sound? And every day of it +fight, fight, fight against head-winds varying from a moderate to a +whole gale. In truth, the famous Cape weather is being administered in +heroic doses. Personally, I don’t mind it in the least; weeks or even +months of it, if necessary, would be quite immaterial to me; but the +interior of the cabin is so abominably uncomfortable for my wife, bar +our own room, that for this reason I want to get out of it as quickly +as possible. This gloomy weather, too, is dreadfully trying for her, as +it is too dark to read below without a lamp at even the brightest part +of the day. + +At ten we opened out Cape Spencer, a magnificent headland at the +southern end of Hermite Island, and an hour later sighted Horn Island +for the second time, bearing northeast true, distant eighteen miles. +It was the first really good look we had had at the Horn, and the +world-famous rock presented quite a formidable appearance, being five +hundred feet in height, though lacking the majestic dignity of Cape +Spencer, which lies twenty-five miles west-northwest of it. Indeed, +there is no particular landmark about it to cause Horn Island to stand +forth from the surrounding crags. Many people imagine that the Cape +was so called from its resemblance to a horn, but this is a mistake. +The proper name is Cape Hoorn, which was given it in 1616 by the +Dutch navigator Schouten, in honor of his native town in Flanders. On +the other hand, False Cape Horn, about fifty miles northwest of the +true cape, at the extremity of Hardy Peninsula, bears a remarkable +likeness to an inverted curved cornucopia, and also a resemblance to +the fantastic Cape Split in the Bay of Fundy, at the entrance to the +Minas Basin. It was our cherished desire to photograph Horn Island, but +we were prevented by the disadvantageous conditions; so far as known, +it has been photographed but once, and that by Captain Rivers of the +American ship “A. G. Ropes,” who, a short time since, when bound to the +westward, sailed boldly in to within a few miles and, during a bright +spell of weather, was enabled to obtain a photograph of the great Cape. + +This is the second time that we have been west of the Horn, if only a +few miles, and here we go back again to the eastward on the starboard +tack, with the wind a strong breeze from southwest by south. We are +steering about south-southeast and the variation makes it south, which +would be passable were it not for the leeway and current, so that, in +spite of the variation, south-southeast is our actual course. Good-by +for a few days, friend Horn; perhaps we’ll pay you another visit in a +week or so. Indeed, the most satisfactory manner of ascertaining one’s +exact position down here after a week or two of gales and dark weather +is to set out and look for Cape Horn, which will no doubt be found +in two or three days, take a fresh departure from it, and then away +south again. This is actually what we have been doing, only we missed +the Cape this last time, but found an equally satisfactory landmark +in Spencer; if a ship-master can calculate his longitude to within a +degree (about thirty-five miles) in the midst of all these currents, +he is a shrewd navigator. By the way, what appropriate names have been +given to various portions of wild and comfortless Tierra del Fuego; on +the chart now before me appear such appellations peculiarly distinctive +of this region: Last Hope Inlet, Desolation Island, Dislocation Harbor, +Obstruction Sound, Famine Reach, Deceit Rocks. + +Rain, rain; snow, snow; hail, hail. No end of it in sight. The aneroid +has risen to 30 inches, which, with an increase of nine degrees in +the temperature, would indicate a northerly wind; but we have long +since given up hoping for such good luck. At 1.30 this afternoon we +saw the pale sun at an altitude of about seven degrees for a moment, +but he quickly drew over his face the cowl of nimbus cloud, as though +terrified at the sight of Cape Horn. However, like the Ancient Mariner, +“we hailed it in God’s name,” and were comforted at knowing that the +orb is still in existence. + +Captain Scruggs and the mate often now have very turbulent and +passionate arguments, not to say quarrels, at meals. It is apparently +impossible for the mate to get his reckoning right or anywhere near +right, and to-day when the dinner-bell had clanged through the cabin, +the skipper asked him suddenly and angrily what his longitude was. Mr. +Goggins, after emptying his grimy vest-pockets of bits of tobacco, +twine, and infinitesimal pencils, quakingly produced a morsel of +ragged, dirty brown paper, upon which appeared a variety of rare +and hitherto unknown characters, which he twisted and turned at +inconceivable angles, with horrible facial contortions. There was a +dead, portentous silence, “Well, sir?” rapped out the skipper “I--I--I, +er--er, about 71° 22′, sir.” + +“About 71° 22′, eh? That’s your idea of the ship’s position, is it? +Just let me tell you that this has gone far enough. Do you understand? +How in the devil’s name can you make it 71° with Cape Spencer right +under your nose? Don’t you know enough yet to take a new departure +from a landmark? I did think you had enough sense for that, but I see I +was wrong,” etc., etc. + +They argue, too, about the most trivial affairs, during which the +skipper all but blows the skylights off with his hurricane voice. Later +on, at dinner to-day, they quarrelled about the position of a certain +San Francisco restaurant. The old man swore that it wasn’t on Polk +Street. Then they went at each other quite savagely, but gradually +calmed down, and we thought it was all over, when suddenly the skipper +hammered on the table with his fist, and shouted, “That restaurant’s +no more on Polk Street than this huckleberry pie’s a blueberry; I mean +raspberry.” And he was so vexed at his simple little mistake that he +thundered at the boy Sammie, who stands shuddering in the pantry during +meals, “You, Sam, get some buckets of salt-water and wrench out that +bath-tub; and if you’re longer than ten minutes, damme if I don’t break +you all to +PIECES+.” Sammie has a woful time of it on board; +for, besides doing all conceivable sorts of dirty work, he is the butt +of the ship’s company, teased beyond endurance by the men, and kicked +and pounded mercilessly by both mates. Probably his most disagreeable +and anxious moments are passed in the pantry while we are at meals. +His dread of the old man is so intense that in his awful presence he +is little better than a lunatic. While he is in the pantry he dwells +in terror of a summons to the table; and when “You, Sam!” finally does +come crashing forth, and he reaches the captain’s side in a single +bound, it irritates this singular man excessively. Then, of course, +the mate must needs rake up some fancied grievance against the unhappy +lad, who is immensely relieved when he is ordered in disgrace from +the dining-room. The other day the skipper told him, in my wife’s +presence, that he was not fit to carry guts to a bear. It seemed to us +that that was exactly what he was doing, especially as he had a dish +of tongues and sounds in his hand at the moment, which to me is the +most objectionable of all sea-food; it’s worse than burgoo and ham-fat. +Latitude, 56° 12′ south; longitude, 67° 32′ west. + + ++July 22+ + +Wore round at eight this morning, and stood north and west once more on +the port tack, as the wind backed into the southward and allowed us to +come up to west-northwest by compass, or northwest by west true, which +is not bad. We made so little to the good, though, in the twenty-four +hours that it cannot be said that we are doing anything more than +waltzing up and down the sixty-seventh meridian. We have gone through +the water fast enough, but not in the right direction; for forty-eight +hours now we have been under single-reefed topsails, and if a ship can +carry that canvas she will do five or six knots an hour even in a heavy +sea. A single reef in the topsails means generally whole main-sail and +foresail, which is enough to send a vessel ahead at a good rate. When +the main-sail is reefed or hauled up, though, a ship goes to leeward +nearly as fast as she goes ahead. + +We sped over the water then at quite a respectable gait, and, in trying +to make a little westing, if the skipper is driving the ship for all +she’s worth, for both wind and sea are heavy, no man can blame him. +The men continue to grow worse and worse, and there are not six in the +forecastle who do not show the effects of exposure, chilblains and +sea-boils. The latter have increased shockingly; three more men are +down with them, Coleman, Pettersen, and Eckers. Coleman this morning +showed me two dreadful-looking wrists; the left one was particularly +bad, with a deep rent or cavity in the flesh itself that a silver +dollar would not cover; not bleeding, but mortifying and sloughing +terribly, presenting a sickening spectacle. Coleman says that some of +the others are a good deal worse than he is. Hapless creatures! how +they manage to do any work at all with these wounds is difficult to +understand. Let them be bandaged ever so tightly and what will it avail +in the rough work? The bandages soon work loose, and there is the bare, +raw flesh exposed to the salt-water and the rubbing of their sleeves. +If Job had sea-boils, it would be safe betting that they were the worst +afflictions that he had. Why will not sailors take care of themselves +ashore and obviate to a certain extent such suffering as they undergo +off Cape Horn? The youngest and healthiest of our men, those with +clear skins, do not seem to suffer much with these boils; and they say +that another safeguard to a certain degree against them is to dry the +wrists as much as possible before turning in. Bad food, though, with a +preponderance of salt meat, will soon play havoc with the blood of the +stoutest man; and while there seems to be a fairly good variety of food +on the “Higgins” for the crew, yet the majority of sailors on Yankee +ships are fed chiefly on wretched, scurvy-breeding food. The name +that American ships used to bear thirty and forty years ago for the +superlatively good rations that the men got, is by no means deserved +at the present day by the majority of our own deep-water ships. Many +are the tales of starvation told by men arriving on Yankee ships at +San Francisco in these days; I mention San Francisco particularly, as +that port has until very lately sustained the reputation of withholding +justice from sailors to a remarkable extent. As to the stories of +foremast hands lying on the witness-stands in court when defending +themselves, I am convinced it is generally not so. We have seen several +acts committed by the mates aboard this vessel against the sailors +which would be regarded as entirely untrue by a justice if told by a +seaman. In the great majority of cases the word of a bucko mate is +taken in court in preference to the sailor’s, and in this way there is +an inconceivable amount of injustice done to the latter. For instance, +there are here at least a dozen men in the forecastle the word of any +one of whom I would unhesitatingly believe rather than that of either +of the mates. Captain Scruggs appears to be, and I believe he is, an +entirely truthful man; but as for Goggins, he would lie for a worn-out +chew of tobacco (he often tells monstrous falsehoods to the skipper +concerning the men); and even Mr. Rarx must come under the same ban. + +It seems to me that this ship makes a great deal of water. Twice in +every watch, night and day, since we have been south of 50°, the +ship has had to be pumped out; and in twelve hours yesterday, when +the wretched pumps broke down again, we made twenty-eight inches of +water. It is all very fine to say that wooden ships are lighter in bad +weather than iron ones, and to allude to the latter as diving-bells, +but this ship is wetter than the iron “Mandalore” was running before a +heavy sea, and the latter possessed the inestimable advantage of never +leaking even when driven into a high head-sea. + +Captain Scruggs was in a state of mind when, after wearing round on +the port tack this morning, he found that we couldn’t head up much +better than north true. Of course, we had the customary eruption +during the manœuvre, and he raged quite furiously at the helmsmen, +who, unfortunately, were the two dullest men in the ship--Pettersen +and Eckers. As I say, the captain wrought himself into wild gusts of +passion, and when he found the ship off to north-northwest he had +apparently exhausted all methods for easing his mind. But we reckoned +without our skipper, being a man of much resource, and he conceived +a brilliant plan. After standing motionless and speechless for a full +minute he strode to the weather wheel-house door, tore it open, and +crash! slammed it to. Again, another bang, worse than the first. Once +more a great crashing rent the air that shook the structure, while the +old man ground his teeth and worked his brush-like eyebrows as though +they were on a string, as he stamped over to leeward, muttering to +himself and shaking all over. It was a mirth-compelling scene. + +A little anecdote will show him in yet another phase: we asked him, a +day or two ago, who was the best helmsman in the ship, and he replied, +waspishly, “There hain’t no best among ’em; they’re all d---- bad; +fed like kings, and this is what you get.” Latitude, 57° 30′ south; +longitude, 67° west. + + ++July 23+ + +At eleven o’clock last night we heard the rasping voice of old Goggins +sing out, “Land ahead!” The captain turned out at once (he goes to +bed now at seven, and sleeps till midnight if the weather isn’t too +outrageous), and immediately ordered the ship on the other tack; +and, after we had come around, three pinnacles of rock were seen +standing sharply up out of the sea, for the night wasn’t a very dark +one. They were the Diego Ramirez Rocks, which, lying eighteen marine +leagues southwest of Cape Horn, form unquestionably the most dangerous +obstruction in the entire Southern Ocean, rearing their jagged peaks +vertically out of a depth of two hundred fathoms, right in the track +of westward-bound ships. If the weather is thick and dark, there is +nothing to apprise the mariner of their proximity, even if he keeps the +lead going, until the thunder of what is perhaps the most tremendous +surf in the world warns him, too late, that he is within hailing +distance of the dreaded Diego Ramirez. A crash, a great shout, and lo! +a stately ship and her company are effaced in a moment of time, a few +bits of timber cast upon the shore by those vast surges of the South +Pacific being all that remains of what was one of man’s most beautiful +works, a full-rigged ship. + +The last vessel to go ashore on these rocks was the American ship +“Arabia”; and, although she went to pieces immediately, all of her crew +miraculously escaped and were taken off by another vessel and landed +at Montevideo. Ship-masters call the rocks ‘Dyeego Rammerreez’, though +they inconsistently pronounce San Diego as it ought to be,--Deeaigo. +Why is it, I wonder, that this land is always spoken of as being +eighteen marine leagues from Cape Horn? Why not say fifty-four miles. +Yet all ocean directories say that they are eighteen marine leagues +from the Horn, though all other distances are given in miles. + +We would really have passed several miles to leeward of the rocks if +we had kept on, but no ship-master will ever take any chances with +them; however, we are much elated at finding ourselves an appreciable +distance to the westward of the Cape. Throughout the day we have been +fanning along under a main-royal! But that’s the way of this region. +Yesterday morning under reefed topsails; this morning courtesying +quietly along over an almost smooth sea, bar the southwesterly swell. + +A few minutes ago, at about two o’clock, we witnessed another +exhibition of what is called “discipline” on American ships, but +what is elsewhere known as brutality. These are the facts: After +dinner a man was sent down into the lazarette to bring up a barrel +of split pease; it was the luckless Swede, Brün. This man, who is +not particularly strong at best, and is now in very bad shape, found +great difficulty in shoving the barrel, which seemed to weigh about +one hundred and fifty pounds, up the lazarette hatch-way; and care +must then be exercised never to allow the chimes of a barrel to touch +the deck, as it would leave a scar. Brün finally got the barrel clear +of the hatch and was rolling it flat along the poop, when the mate, +looking as sour as lime-juice, came hobbling along the alley-way and, +pointing to some old marks in the deck, said, “What d’you do that +for?” Now, I am perfectly sure that Brün had not made those marks, and +so was the mate; but Goggins was in one of his snarling moods, and +without further ado he applied his boot to Brün’s person with such +severity that he fell sprawling over the barrel, which then rolled over +to leeward and struck the rail with a loud crack. Without a word, or +even a look, the man gathered himself up, and, grasping the barrel, +continued on his way, only remarking, “I’m doing the best I can, +sair,” in the weak, precise tones of a foreigner speaking English. +“What! answerin’ back?” yelled Goggins. “Who learned yer that, eh?” +and running up to Brün, he seized him fiercely by the throat with his +left hand and then drove his right fist with full force into the man’s +face. The latter staggered and fell backward half over the rail into +the lanyards of the mizzen-shrouds, where he remained some moments +before he came to; and then, well knowing that he would have been +pounded almost to death with any handy weapon if he so much as opened +his mouth again, he once more started forward with the barrel. This is +a nice state of affairs when men in the merchant service of the United +States are suffered to be beaten and kicked into insensibility, and +in some cases actually killed at the hands of brutal, savage mates. +Before we sailed in this ship I had often heard that sailors under the +stars and stripes underwent the most cruel punishments, in many cases +of so unusual and low a description as to preclude mention in these +pages, but I hardly believed it. Now, however, after knowing how Yankee +ships are run and that such brutes as Goggins sail as mates in them, +it is my opinion, and that of my wife also, who understands sailors, +that the published accounts of seamen’s cruelties and sufferings at +the hands of the officers of our sailing ships are, in nearly every +instance, true and straightforward descriptions of what took place at +sea. And what is the usual result? The justice dismisses the case with +the remark, “Justifiable discipline.” This is the way that the marine +law is generally administered in our lower courts. There appears to +be but little attempt at justice for the sailor, though I think that +their chances of obtaining their rights in the future are considerably +brighter than they used to be. Does any one of the other three great +maritime nations--Great Britain, France, and Germany--permit such +acts in their merchantmen as the beating of sailors? Decidedly not. +In those countries’ ships sailors are treated as such and not as +anthropophagical savages. Yet our marine laws are practically the +same as theirs. Their laws are enforced, ours are not, by reason of +petty briberies and deceits. It is a different story on our steamers, +where the officers would not dare to maltreat the men. Discipline, +far better than we have here, can be maintained without recourse to +violence, which is proved by the vessels of other nations. Contrary to +the statements of captains and mates, who make them to shield their bad +deeds, foremast hands are _not_ continually trying to create a +disturbance. I will leave this question to be answered by two American +ship-masters, who run their vessels as deep-water ships ought to be, +and who never have any trouble with their crews. These two men, I do +not say that there are no others (though there are lementably few +of them), are Captain Gates of the “S. P. Hitchcock,” and Captain +Banfield of the “St. James”; these skippers believe in decent treatment +and they see that their men get it. Among twenty or thirty men there +are sure to be two or three hard cases; these should be dealt with +according to their deserts; yet on this ship the black legs have, +in every instance that we have seen, escaped punishment, while such +inoffensive and well-meaning men as Brün, Karl, and others, have been +made the mark for the violent tempers of both mates. The reason for +brutality on Yankee ships is traceable in every instance to one man, +the captain; for, if he did not countenance it, such acts could not +be committed. It is passing strange that American captains, who have +almost invariably risen from before the mast, should have so little +sympathy for sailors, in view of the fact that only a few years ago +they suffered from the tempers of mates just as now the men do who are +under them. Latitude, 57° 22′ south; longitude, 68° 55′ west. + + ++July 24+ + +Our light winds didn’t last long, for the cross-jack had to be hauled +up, the three top-gallant-sails furled, and the main-sail reefed during +last night. We made excellent headway, though, doing five miles more +than three degrees of longitude, though we were driven off to the +southward too much, being at noon to-day one hundred and sixty miles +south of Cape Horn and well below the northern limit of drift-ice, +though the temperature is not low, 39° at noon. Thus far this has been +a slightly warmer winter passage than the average, though it will +surprise many people to know that the thermometer rarely falls below +30° north of 60° south; the lowest that Captain Scruggs ever saw it was +28°, though a Dutch ship, of which I have forgotten the name, reported +the mercury as low as 20° on one occasion some seventy-five years ago. + +Fogs form a very disagreeable feature of the Southern Ocean after the +meridian of the Horn is passed, and the dampness likewise generally +increases. A pretty good idea of the excessive moisture in this part +of the world may be obtained by reading the report of the surveying +steamer “Sylvia,” which was stationed in the Magellan Straits for +fourteen months. Throughout that period rain fell on an average for +eleven hours out of every twenty-four, the amount per day being half an +inch. + +As for fogs, we have been in one for twenty-four hours now, and a +lookout is stationed on the forecastle-head by day as well as by +night. Indeed, it is probable that the hardest and most tedious part +of the passage still remains; usually it is not very difficult to +reach the seventieth meridian, the heaviest westerly gales generally +being experienced between that point and 50° south, which vessels aim +to cross in 90° west. We should very much like to see the wind come +out of the southwest again, by which it will be perceived how hard we +are to please, for the first ten days off Cape Horn we had nothing +but southwesterly gales, and we rebuked them and would be satisfied +with naught but northerly breezes; now a southerly blow would be most +welcome. + +This morning at eleven the skipper shouted down the companion-way +that there was a vessel on our weather beam, steering east, and that +she would pass close aboard. So we went on deck at once, and there, +looming high out of the fog, under a heavy press of sail, was a large, +three-masted bark. She was the first homeward-bounder that we had seen, +was probably from Australian or New Zealand ports, and she presented +a noble appearance as she swept rapidly by, distant not more than a +third of a mile. She was an old-style vessel, although built of iron, +with no sheer and a phenomenally long jib-boom, the practice in these +days being to rig sailing vessels of both iron and wood with short, +thick, pole bowsprits. We thought she was going to ask us for her +position, for she was two degrees south of the homeward-bound track; so +we chalked “59°” and “72°” in large figures on a slate, ready to hold +up, for she was near enough to make them out with the glasses. She flew +onward, though, without a sign; and as it was none of our business what +she was doing a hundred and twenty miles out of her course, we didn’t +offer any suggestions. This vessel was a good illustration of the +difference in carrying sail between close-hauled and running free, for +we had nothing set above the topsails, while she was under all three +royals. + +Yesterday was a grand rest-day for the men,--that is, a cessation from +being continually drenched with salt-water, and a few days of this sort +would go far toward healing their sea-boils. As Paddy put it, “To-day’s +worth tin dollars to any one of us, sor.” It was, in truth, an unusual +sight to see the men going about without their oil-skins once more, +for fully two whole weeks have passed since they could work on the +main-deck without these yellow garments. Oil-skins really do not do +very much good in heavy weather, though, as has been mentioned before. +Nothing but a suit of diving armor would keep a man dry on deck off +Cape Horn; still, oil-skins keep a great deal of water out, and also +protect a man against the cold. So much bad weather lately has deprived +me of my customary exercise at the pumps, for it is dangerous to go +knocking about the decks in a heavy sea; but yesterday I had nearly +an hour of hard work, doing forty strokes to the minute. Both watches +pumped together, as a rope was passed over one of the handles; two +thousand strokes at a ship’s pumps is exceedingly lusty exercise if a +man doesn’t shirk his work, and, I should think, would satisfy Sandow +himself. + +[Illustration: Forty to the minute] + +As far as the atmosphere here is concerned, to-day is typical Southern +Ocean weather: drizzly, foggy, clammy, and dismal to an incredible +degree. There is hardly any light at all below at noon, and everything +is dim and obscure, in spite of the fact that the sun commenced his +southern journey more than a month ago. The cabin bill of fare, +however, has not shown the least symptoms of debility; on the contrary, +when we got down past the Falklands the diversity and excellence of the +edibles seemed to increase. The immense variety of tinned goods put +up in these days is astonishing; for to the old list, which comprised +meats, pease, and beans, are added such things as spinach, cabbage, and +pumpkin for pies, all of which seem to be nearly, if not quite, as good +as fresh vegetables. The only article of food on board that is really +bad is the pie-crust; there are not adjectives enough in any language +to describe this atrocious stuff. So surprisingly good is the eating +now that I have copied down what we had at each meal for one week, in +the very worst weather. Here it is, with the hope that the reader will +not be bored in the perusal thereof. + + ++Sunday+ + + _Breakfast._--Salt mackerel, smoked sausage, boiled hominy, and + potatoes. + + _Dinner._--Pea soup, pressed corned beef, boiled potatoes, + spinach, tapioca pudding, _demi-tasse_! + + _Supper._--Pressed corned beef, fried potatoes, jam, and cheese. + + ++Monday+ + + _Breakfast._--Oatmeal, ham and eggs, corn bread. + + _Dinner._--Vermicelli soup, beef stew, boned turkey, asparagus, + boiled potatoes, deep apple pie. + + _Supper._--Boned turkey, corned-beef hash, baked potatoes, canned + strawberries, “Hamburg process.” + + ++Tuesday+ + + _Breakfast._--Fried tripe, scrambled eggs (questionable), + griddle-cakes. + + _Dinner._--Vegetable soup, Hamburg steak of fresh pork, Boston + baked beans, pumpkin pie. + + _Supper._--Mutton stew, baked beans, stewed corn, marmalade. + + ++Wednesday+ + + _Breakfast._--Oatmeal, salt herring, bacon, potatoes, rolls. + + _Dinner._--Oyster soup, prawn curry and rice, boned turkey and + string-beans, blackberry pie. + + _Supper._--Salt beef stew, baked potatoes, stewed apples, canned + pears. + + ++Thursday+ + + _Breakfast._--Hominy, bacon and eggs, muffins. + + _Dinner._--Beef broth, roast fresh pork, asparagus, tinned plum + pudding. + + _Supper._--Boned chicken, corned-beef hash, rolls, fig preserves. + + ++Friday+ + + _Breakfast._--Smoked salmon, omelette (questionable), rice + pan-cakes. + + _Dinner._--Clam chowder, picked-up codfish, meat pie, pease, + huckleberry pie. + + _Supper._--Fish-balls, cold tongue, marmalade. + + ++Saturday+ + + _Breakfast._--Lobster curry and rice, bacon rolls. + + _Dinner._--Vegetable soup, roast fresh pork, Boston beans, + macaroni, quince pie. + + _Supper._--Cold pork, baked potatoes, baked beans, stewed prunes. + +To this excellent bill of fare I must add that every single item is +of the very best, and when it is mentioned that the ship was stored +by Morris & Co., who include the White Star Line among their patrons, +further comment is hardly necessary. All the pickles and preserves are +in glass jars and put up by Crosse & Blackwell, Worcestershire sauce +by Lea & Perrin, while olives, Edam cheese, and several varieties of +biscuits are always on the table. With such eating, we can exclaim with +Nansen, “Are we to be pitied when such cheer for the inner man is +provided?” Coffee that is actually delicious washes down all these good +things. Would that sailors fared as well in proportion. + +But oh, the surroundings! The captain in his table manners really +isn’t so very much out of the way, but the mate and the table-cloth +are utterly beyond language. The crust of dirt upon every visible +portion of old Goggins’s anatomy is rapidly increasing, and mire of +various sorts is crystallized in the folds of his corrugated skin. It +is true that the second mate of the “Mandalore” was no better, but then +he didn’t eat with us, while this creature does, instead of with his +pachydermatous relatives in the sty. + +The table-cloth is a marvellous piece of work at the end of the third +day, with islands of gravy, continents of soup, lakes of coffee, +and dollops of all kinds of grease, so that it looks like a sort of +hideous crazy quilt. All this could be avoided by using a piece of +white oil-cloth instead of the soiled cotton cloth, and it could be +wiped clean after each meal. But no deep-water skipper who ever lived +could be induced to abandon his table-cloth, which he cherishes with an +extravagant affection. To him it is one of the boundaries between the +cabin and the forecastle, and anything reminding him of those evil days +when he himself lived in that odious den is too monstrous for thought. +Latitude, 58° 40′ south; longitude, 72° west. + + ++July 25+ + +And still to the southward we go. A little more of this will be more +than sufficient; but the northwesterly winds continue, and we cannot +choose but steer whither they will permit us. Already we are nearly +four degrees south of the Horn, and we will no doubt cross the sixtieth +parallel in a short time. Many captains prefer going even as far +as 64° south, and make their westing down there where the degrees +of longitude are less than thirty miles, and then steer north on a +meridian, if they can. _If they can._ Ah! that’s the point; for +often, after penetrating far into the high latitudes, they cannot get +north again when they want to, and these vessels then make very long +passages. For instance, about three years ago several ships were in +sight of each other, all bound to the westward. Some of them, including +the “Reuce,” a Yankee ship, of which Mr. Rarx was then second mate, +knocked about near the land, waiting for a slant; the others dove into +the southward immediately, including the “St. Paul.” All of the latter +made very long passages, the “Reuce” having discharged her cargo in +San Francisco and commenced reloading before the “St. Paul” arrived. +Captain Scruggs is one of those who do not advocate the southern +passage, and he has no chart that reaches below 58° south, so that my +track chart of the world is the only one that can be used just now. +This doesn’t seem right, for ships in the Cape Horn trade ought to be +provided with charts to the South Polar Circle. Suppose a ship were +blown down among the South Shetlands without a chart? Such a thing is +quite possible, and once in that archipelago without a knowledge of the +land or any of the courses, a ship would stand mighty little chance of +getting out again in bad weather. + +This wind is just exactly in the wrong place; of course, we could go +round on the other tack, but we couldn’t do better than north-northeast +by compass, which would be an absurd course, so we have to go pegging +away at it and trust to luck. We are now almost exactly south of +New York, and can imagine the people eating and sleeping there at +the same time that we do ourselves, though under somewhat different +conditions. Steady rain has commenced again; the aneroid stands at 29, +and the melancholy, doleful appearance of the heavens and the sea has +apparently increased. Latitude, 59° 40′ south; longitude, 75° 20′ west. + + ++July 26+ + +At last we are steering our course, west-northwest true. A very light +breeze has just now (4 +P.M.+) begun to breathe softly out of +the southeast, so faint that we are not doing a mile an hour against +a head-sea; but even such a progression is most welcome, being in the +right direction. + +We had all the wind that we wanted yesterday afternoon, though from +the westward. It began to blow hard at three o’clock, and at 4.30 the +upper fore- and mizzen-top-sails were clewed up; the main-topsail was +double-reefed at five; the main-sail was furled at six; at seven the +foresail was hauled up, and it was blowing a furious gale. So violent +was the wind that all hands were more than an hour and a half making +fast the foresail alone. At midnight there wasn’t a breath of wind, +and we have ever since floundered about in a heavy swell from several +simultaneous directions, and we presented the singular appearance +of a ship becalmed under a double-reefed maintop-sail. Of such is +the weather in the heart of the Southern Ocean. We have crossed the +sixtieth parallel, and at noon we were two hundred and forty miles +farther south than Cape Horn; and so silent and desolate is this vast +ocean that, like Nansen in the “Fram,” we pursue our journey in deepest +solitude, a molecule in this, the largest body of water on the globe. + +There is no alteration in the dark weather, save that at one this +afternoon the sun showed himself for a moment, and I tried to get an +ex-meridian, but failed because of the poor horizon. It has now been +almost a fortnight since we have had either a chronometer or a meridian +sight, and our reckoning is probably far from true. There is always +something adverse in taking sights down here; for, if the sun isn’t +obscured, a bad horizon makes the correct altitude impossible; and if +the sea-rim is well marked, there is sure to be a gale of wind blowing +to drench the sextant with spray. Happy is the mariner who can get an +accurate observation once every ten days south of Cape Horn, and ships +often reach 30° south in the Pacific without a glimpse of the sun. +At four yesterday afternoon the heaviness and the oppressiveness and +foreboding look of the atmosphere were almost terrible; while the disk +of the sun, weak and pale through the mist-squalls, glared down upon +the wild scene with sickly eye. Hope has arisen within our breasts, +though, with the present southeasterly airs, and perhaps it will not +be long now until we are in bright sunshine again, which will dry out +everything below. The stove seems powerless to reduce the humidity +of the cabin, and the condition of the dining-room is absolutely +outrageous. + +At supper last evening we had a pleasant little diversion. An +unexpectedly heavy sea had come up from the northwest, which, catching +the ship on the quarter, would heave her over to leeward in tremendous +rolls. The supper-bell had rung, and my wife and I had seated ourselves +at the table on the weather-side, the cat perching itself between us +upon the bench; the skipper and mate had not yet come in. + +At that moment these were the contents of the table: four +dinner-plates, four saucers, two plates of bread and biscuit, a large +dish of baked potatoes, a platter of corned-beef hash, a pressed +tongue, a dish of butter, a glass jar of marmalade, a basin of stewed +apples, and innumerable knives, forks, and spoons. All at once there +came that peculiar motion that always precedes an unusually heavy roll +in a sailing ship. We grasped the long bench with the grip of death. +One short roll to windward, and then began the deep, ponderous, +resistless lurch to leeward. Over she went, leisurely and quietly, and +still farther, till she must have been rail under. At this moment a +dusky object shot by us with incredible speed; it was the steward, who +vanished backward into the open store-room opposite, and we saw him not +again for several minutes. The last part of him to fade out of sight +was his ghastly smile disappearing through the doorway. Then various +objects began to fetch away in the pantry,--tin cans, cups and saucers, +gradually increasing to an _allegro furioso_; and, finally, with +a frightful clash, like the climax of a full orchestra, the entire +contents of the table swept grandly across to leeward, and fell like +an avalanche against the opposite wall. For the moment we were stunned +by the appalling crash, and then there smote upon our ears a shriek +whose equal cannot be conceived. It swelled now from a low murmur to a +perfectly infernal scream, like the screech of a fog siren, and anon +sank down again, like the moaning wail of the Irish death-cry. It was +the cat. At first we thought that it was buried under the hurricane of +dishes, and looked to see it lying in slithers upon the floor. But no; +his tail had been nipped in the movable back with which the benches are +provided, and the harder we pushed back against it to prevent ourselves +from being projected across the table the fiercer was the grip on +the tail. We could not release the unhappy animal without unpleasant +results, not to say injury, to ourselves, and we could but sit and +hearken to its dreadful voice. + +Solemnly and slowly the ship righted, and a scene of remarkable +devastation confronted us. On the table two articles remained, a +saucer and a shallow, empty, wooden box, used to chock things off +in. Everything else had crashed against the opposite wall with such +terrific energy that the plates and dishes were reduced to the +minutest fragments. Before it finally found a resting-place the +cylindrical roll of tongue had carromed separately on each baked +potato; a large, unbroken platter slid back and forth on the floor like +a toboggan upon a slick, gleaming path of apple-sauce; the butter was +face down in the extreme corner of the store-room; and the elliptical +wad of corned-beef hash loomed up brown and moist upon the opposite +panel, where it had stuck like a wet snow-ball. + +When the final clatter had calmed down like the distant mumblings of a +thunder-storm, the steward protruded his scared face around the angle +of the doorway, and, urged by the saw-like voice of the skipper, who +had now flown into a passion, and was standing at the threshold, began +to slowly gather up the fragments of our once succulent repast. We +contrived to fare pretty well, though, by scraping off the tongue and +opening a tin of pease and tomatoes; and we would have treated the +whole affair as a joke had it not been for the old man’s temper. He was +thoroughly angry, and when I observed that on the “Mandalore” we had +racks four inches high instead of two, and that we broke not a dish or +a cup during the passage, he almost suffocated, and after glaring at us +a moment, leaning against the mizzen-mast at the head of the table, he +snarled, “I druther set right down and eat offen the floor than have +sech things on the table.” + +Indeed, he has been in a violent mood all day at the light weather, and +a growl is all that he has vouchsafed by way of an answer. After dinner +he went prowling about forward looking for a row, and when he couldn’t +find one, he came back and threw half a plank down the lazarette hatch +at the poor, mewing, deserted alley-cat which he keeps shuts up in the +gloom of that dusky cavern. Latitude, 60° 10′ south; longitude, 76° 20′ +west. + + ++July 27+ + +Wind east, force 6; course, northwest, half west, true; distance run +in the last sixty minutes, ten knots! Glorious work; it is the fastest +that we have gone through the water in several weeks; for the last time +that we flew along at this speed was off the coast of Patagonia, with +a west-northwest gale over the quarter. The grand easterly wind did +not reach us until the morning watch, however, so that the whole day’s +run was not so great as the heading of this day’s log would indicate. +Yesterday, from 4 to 8 +P.M.+, we lounged about in an almost +perfect calm; and the stars came out of a clear, placid sky, and, +quivering and trembling, peered down upon an ocean nearly motionless, +for nothing but the ghost of the southwest swell remained. At the +present moment even the last vestige of it has vanished under the +influence of the east wind, and the sea is silent and undisturbed save +for the ruffling caused by the fast-freshening breeze. Strange weather +for 60° south, only four hundred and fifty miles from the South Polar +Circle, in a locality world-famous for its seas and storms. Sometimes, +as in our case, enormous seas are encountered in sight of Cape Horn +itself; but usually the largest are seen to the westward of the Diego +Ramirez, where the sea sinks again to great depths. This easterly wind +is quite surprising to us also; for, barring one day of southeasterly +winds when we first spoke the French ship, four weeks ago, we have +had almost continuous westerly gales. Even for Cape Horn a month of +such implacable winds is a bad record, for on an average an easterly +blow should come every two or three weeks. Our joy, therefore, is very +great, now that we are going so finely and heading our true course, +with the wind on the quarter, and all possible sail set and drawing. +Another unusual, and to our eyes an extremely beautiful, spectacle +was the bright, clear sky of last night, with the shining path of +the Milky Way encircling the heavens with its girdle of gold-dust; +the stately form of the Crux Australis, now at the zenith; and in the +south, forty-five degrees above the horizon, those two weird nebulæ, +the Magellan Clouds, gazing down at us with wan, dim eyes. + +Still another source of delight is the fact that for the first time +in three weeks I have been able to wear foot-gear other than rubber +boots. My leather ones cracked from being hung too near the stove, +so that ever since we passed Cape Virgins it has either been raining +so hard or the sea has been so heavy, even on the poop, that nothing +but rubber would keep the feet dry; and three steady weeks of rubber +boots is somewhat monotonous. And sleep! Heavens! what a grand one last +night was for peaceful, deep rest, the first that we have had since +we showed our nose outside of Cape St. John. Instead of the customary +rolling through an arc of about forty degrees, there was nothing in the +ship’s motion to indicate that we were afloat except an occasional deep +breath, rather pleasant than otherwise. But I am writing as though we +were in the Tropics and in fine weather for good and all; instead of +which, there are hundreds, almost thousands of miles to cover before +the fine, warm days begin. At this season fine weather cannot be +looked for till we cross 30° south in about 100° west, a difference of +latitude alone of eighteen hundred miles, not to mention longitude at +all. + +Would that some stranger could have heard the mate’s conversation at +dinner to-day and witnessed his gesticulations. The old man commenced +on the subject of the men who manned sailing ships in these days, a +topic that invariably has him in a helpless rage in a few minutes. +“Why,” said he, after a long speech, “I had a crew once in the +‘Priscilly Waters’ that was sailors, not farmers; one watch of those +fellows would do more work in four hours than the whole of the eighteen +men here in a day, and there was only ten of ’em before the mast. Why, +all hands on the ‘Waters’ used to nearly yank the masts out of her.” + +As in duty bound, the mate agreed with the skipper, which he did by +sharp jerks and winks in the old man’s direction; and even went him one +better by telling how, in ancient days on the Pacific coast, _he_ +had had a crew in the “Jacob Billings,” for nineteen months on end, +who used to lift the ship clean out of the water. But his manner of +speech at meals in the captain’s presence! His absurd, grotesque ways! +He is always much embarrassed how to begin when he has anything on his +mind; and I can see him now, grinning and simpering like a fool, gazing +intently out of the forward window. At last his meditations overwhelm +him; and, drawing his greasy sleeve several times across his mouth +from ear to ear, he begins to utter odd sounds in his throat, still +staring out on the main-deck. Gradually he grows bolder, and fragments +of sentences can be here and there detected; when suddenly, carried +entirely away, he turns his bleary eyes full upon you and finishes in a +violent shout, instantly collapsing, like an exhausted bellows. + +Often, during an evening, when I go on deck for a breath of air before +turning in, he will discourse thus: “I tell you, Mr. Stevens, Noo York +carn’t touch San Francisco for cheap livin’. Why, sir, I can git a meal +in a ’igh-toned rest’rant there for less nor a quarter of what I can +East. Me and the wife was passin’ along the street in San Francisco one +evenin’ (yer’d never take me for the mate of a ship, sir, if you was +to meet me ashore), and she says to me, says she, ‘’Arry, I’m ’ungry,’ +says she. ‘Hall right,’ I says, ‘so am I.’ So we goes into a ’igh-toned +rest’rant and has a bowl er soup, a bit er fish, a pick er veal, some +vegetables, a piece er pie, and a big cupper corfee. And ’ow much d’ye +think it were? Ten cents apiece. ‘Pretty good,’ says I to th’ old +woman; ‘we’ll try it in Noo York.’ So w’en we got East ag’in, we went +into a rest’rant on Fulton Street, near the ferry, up two flights. +Oh, it were ’igh-toned, too, sir. They ’ad niggers for waiters. So I +picked one out and says to ’im, ‘’Ere, you, bring a bit er steak,’ I +says, ‘some pertaters, and corfee.’ Well, I ’ad to leave the steak, I +couldn’t eat it; and I says to the nigger, ‘Take them pertaters back; I +never eats warmed-over vegetables.’ And wot d’ye think they stuck me? +Fifty cents each!” + +His talking of restaurants puts me in mind of a rather amusing incident +that happened to my wife and me in Boston a year or two ago. We were +walking through Washington Street one evening, and being extremely +hungry, stepped into one of the many dairy kitchens that adorn that +thoroughfare. We found, upon seating ourselves, that it was a religious +institution, with biblical mottoes upon the walls, and we were amusing +ourselves watching the amazement of the prim, gray old couples from the +country, almost stunned by the bevelled mirrors and electric lamps, +when we became aware of two glaring legends hung cheek by jowl high +up on the wall. One read, “Only the righteous shall see God.” Its +neighbor, “Keep your eye on your hat and coat.” Latitude, 59° 9′ south; +longitude, 79° 15′ west. + + ++July 28+ + +Course, northwest true, distance run in the twenty-four hours, two +hundred and seventy-eight miles! Hurrah for the fair wind! Long live +the easterly gale! What better conditions could be desired than those +that now prevail? A fair, fresh gale, a sea which, while rough, is +nothing out of the way, and a splendid position in which to take +the expected northwesterly gales in a day or two. Every square inch +of canvas is drawing to its utmost capacity, and we averaged only a +fraction less than twelve knots for the twenty-four hours. Now, in +spite of all the old records of more than three hundred and fifty miles +a day, a run of two hundred and eighty is an extremely good one. It is +certainly no great feat for a ship to make fifty or fifty-five miles +in a watch, but when she maintains twelve knots for twenty-four hours, +sailors call it fast going. + +Some heavy water has come aboard in the last three hours, as all +sailing vessels are very wet running before a strong wind and sea. +At this very moment we shipped a comber over the quarter that broke +entirely over the cabin-house with a crash that shook the bulkheads, +and the skipper has just sung out, “Clew up the royals.” This is +still another fine example of the difference between on and off the +wind. It is blowing a fresh gale, as noted before, which means about +forty-five miles an hour; yet until this moment we have lugged the +three royals without trouble, and only clewed them up because the sea +is getting ugly; by the wind we would be under reefed topsails. The +“Hosea Higgins” doesn’t seem to run well. Even in this sea, which +certainly is not really heavy yet, she is emphatically a wet ship. The +“Mandalore,” a “diving-bell,” was drier than the “Higgins” is now, when +she was running before a sixty-mile gale. We had no business to take +that sea over the quarter a moment ago; indeed, ever since noon we have +had heavy, green water on the poop, and an idea of the quantity may +be gained when it is said that while the captain was standing by the +weather mizzen-shrouds after dinner, a sea washed his legs from under +him, and his grip on the mizzentop-sail-halliards was the only thing +that prevented his being swept down on the main-deck. All the square +windows in the weather-side of the house have been covered with the +heavy, solid wooden shutters, as though they were ports in the ship’s +side, instead of being inside of and protected by the bulwarks. The +glass, which has been wonderfully steady for sixty hours, has commenced +to fall, and a heavy gale is probably overhauling us, for easterly +gales off the Horn have a hard name. + +In all our experience at sea we never saw anything like the dampness +during the late light weather. No rain fell then, but so heavily +charged with moisture was the atmosphere that the water actually ran +off the poop as during a shower; and from the top of the wheel-house, +in size ten by fifteen feet, we filled two ten-gallon tubs in twelve +hours with the moisture that condensed upon it; while down the walls of +our room, separated from the dining-room, where the hot stove is, only +by the after-cabin, moisture trickled in glistening beads. + +The men have slightly improved, though they are still a badly used-up +lot of sailors. To what an apparently infinite number and variety of +ailments and mishaps they are liable! There is the tough and hardy +second mate, even he has lost the entire use of one hand by a trivial +accident. He had a small wart or something of that sort on the back +of his right hand a few days ago, and on one occasion, while slacking +off the weather lower maintop-sail-brace, one of the ropes knocked off +this tiny excrescence. Mr. Rarx paid no heed to it; but in twenty-four +hours his hand had swollen dreadfully, puffing up like a huge biscuit, +and where the wart had been there formed a large sore that had to be +lanced. Cold salt-water and friction must be looked to as accountable +for this, for Rarx is as lean and healthy-looking as a prize-fighter. +Louis Jacquin, the Frenchman, too, another specimen of rugged health, +had a finger caught in a main-brace block and jammed, drawing blood; +and in two days an ugly purple rising appeared at the base of the nail, +as large and shining as a hot-house grape--so hard, withal, that a +lance penetrated it with difficulty. + +The best men in the ship are sent to the helm now, for an awkward, +false turn of the wheel in such a sea would broach the ship to in a +moment, and then, good-by pumps, rail, and everything else on the +main-deck. Latitude, 55° 53′ south; longitude, 85° 20′ west. + + ++July 29+ + +_Salve lux benigna!_ Yesterday morning daybreak came perceptibly +earlier than it used to, and by seven o’clock it was sufficiently +light to distinguish faces at a short distance; while this morning, so +much northing had we made, that at seven it was broad daylight; and we +will soon be able to eat our quarter-to-eight breakfast without the +palsied yellow glare of the lamp. It is true that the sky is still +of a Saturnian lead color, but the dark, heavy _feel_ of the +atmosphere has disappeared. To-morrow we will cut the fiftieth parallel +if this easterly breeze holds. It has let go to a certain extent, yet +it blew us over two hundred and fifty miles in the twenty-four hours, +and in three days we have done six hundred and fifty miles to the +northwest-ward, which is extraordinarily good work for this locality; +our position is simply splendid. + +The desire of Captain Scruggs for wishing to appear that he knows +everything, especially in the presence of the mate, is still very +remarkable. Sometimes it is amusing, but more often extremely annoying. +Frequently, when I tell him something that he has never heard of +before, he will nod his head slightly, and, with an alteration of my +own words, repeat the sentence aggressively and dogmatically, as +though it came directly from him, and he was giving us the information. +The mate is completely deceived, and always looks admiringly toward +him, simultaneously winking and leering atrociously. Moreover, Captain +Scruggs is a man whom you cannot possibly surprise by any statement; +and he is always unmoved in the face of the most unusual occurrences. +As an example, we found, one morning, having taken the precaution of +glancing into the pitcher, that the syrup contained a quantity of +foreign substances which floated about in it. + +“There seems to be a number of curious things in the syrup,” I humbly +ventured; “looks like long-cut tobacco.” Disturbed? Indeed, no. He only +clutched the pitcher from me, peered ferociously into it, and growled, +“Steward, see if you can’t get this dust out with a knife.” + +The skipper is likewise completely destitute of imagination. Shortly +after we sailed I started to read an extract to him (I was bold in +those days) from a collection of excellent sea stories called “The +Port of Missing Ships,” in which mention is made of a mate who was so +zealous that he “tried to see how near he could come to standing in two +places at the same time without splitting himself.” Here I paused and +glanced with a smile at the old man. But, with a face as expressionless +as a tadpole’s, he asked, “Isn’t that a little overdrawn?” + +The mate rises to the most sublime heights of his absurdities when +he observes at dinner, as he frequently does, with a smirk perfectly +diabolical, “Hi knows the secrets of hall the codfish haristocracy +of San Francisco. My old woman used to work in the Wite ’Ouse” +(_i.e._, that city’s branch of the Parisian Maison Blanc) “as a +fitter; and be gar’s sakes, sir, the things wot I’ve ’eerd is hawful.” + +He also makes use of extraordinary syncopations in conversation. For +example, should my wife ask him a question about the weather, he +always says “Sam?” which, being done into English, signifies, “What +say, ma’am?” + +Mr. Goggins is also abnormally addicted to stewed prunes, which we +often have for supper. He usually disposes of four or five at each +mouthful, and you wait to see him get rid of the pits; but you are +disappointed, because he seems to have swallowed them. At length he +has finished a large saucerful, pushes back his plate, draws his +sleeve heavily across his face, leans back in his seat, looks fixedly +at a point in the ceiling with a wooden face, draws in a long breath, +bends over, and gently blows a dozen or so of prune-stones into his +plate, like a shower of hail-stones. Then mumbling, “Hexcuse me, sir,” +wriggles off his seat and out of the door. Latitude, 52° 34′ south; +longitude, 89° 37′ west. + + ++July 30+ + +At last we have accomplished the arduous midwinter passage of the Horn, +having been twenty-two days off the stormy Cape, or just about the +average; but we would have been at least a week longer had it not been +for that friendly easterly wind. We actually saw the sun several times +to-day, too, were enabled to ascertain our exact location, and our +calculations proved to be only fifty miles out in longitude and thirty +in latitude. In consideration of the fact that for about a fortnight we +wrestled with powerful currents, and uncertain ones at that, the error, +especially in the departure, must be considered insignificant, in view +of the almost limitless sea-room. Whatever may be Captain Scruggs’s +failings, he is a first-rate seaman, and a keen, astute navigator; and +on many occasions near Cape Horn we had opportunities of observing his +accurate, almost infallible judgment. + +To add to our increasing sense of comfort, the sun is mounting very +rapidly in the heavens, both on account of our northing and by reason +of the lengthening of the southern days. The noon altitude was 21° 20′, +a very respectable height, more than double that of a week ago, when at +meridian the sun, if we had been able to measure his altitude, would +not have been more than 9° 30′ above the horizon. The orb, besides, had +sufficient power to raise the mercury two degrees at mid-day when we +hung a thermometer in his rays. + +Off Cape Horn in winter the temperature is usually somewhat lower +than that of the North Atlantic between the British Isles and the +Newfoundland Banks in January. It is only between the latter point +and New York that vessels experience such an intensity of frost as to +contract the mercury to zero and sheath them in several feet of solid +ice. That is, in the deepest seclusions of the open sea, the weather, +even in the coldest season in high latitudes, is generally mild and +soft compared with that found at the same parallel near a great expanse +of land. Indeed, the comparatively high temperature of the entire +Southern Ocean in winter is due to the preponderance of sea, the long, +narrow finger of Patagonia being the only land south of 45°, save some +diminutive clusters of islands. + +On the other hand, though, owing to the uniformity of temperature +produced by such a waste of ocean, Cape Horn summers are but little +warmer than the winters; the difference between the lowest of July +and the highest of December being only 18°, the average for the year +being 42°; whereas in Canada, far away from the mellowing influence of +salt-water, there is an extreme thermometrical range of 150° between +the seasons. Compare Cape Horn’s winter temperature of 30° in the +latitude of 56° and that of Minnesota of 55° below zero, though St. +Paul is six hundred and fifty miles nearer the equator. St. Paul’s +average for the year, 44°, is almost identical with that of the Horn, +the intense heat of the northern summers almost exactly balancing +a degree of cold not exceeded by 20° on the Arctic Ocean. Contrary +to the general opinion, the most intense cold is not to be found in +the far northern sea where Nansen travelled, but in Siberia. In the +centre of that desolate country is a town called Irkutsk in 52° north, +or fifteen degrees south of the Polar Circle, at which the lowest +natural temperature ever recorded by man has been observed, the spirit +thermometers once showing a temperature of 93° below zero, or 53-1/2° +below the freezing point of mercury. Artificial cold, though, has far +exceeded this reading, as Professor Dewar obtained a temperature of +about 370° below zero in the liquefaction of oxygen. This latter figure +is about as conceivable as the unit of measure of the astronomer, who +adopts as his basis of calculation for celestial distances that extent +of space which a ray of light would cover in a year, moving at the rate +of one hundred and eighty thousand miles per second. In other words, +instead of using one mile, his unit of distance is 5,676,480,000,000 +miles, which is known as a light year; and he further crushes us with +the information that stars of the seventeenth magnitude are thirty +thousand light years away. + +By this time the exhausted reader has said to himself many times, +“What’s all this got to do with the Southern Ocean?” So, with apologies +for such an excursion into the infinite, let us continue. + +We are now kept farther away than ever from the dining-room stove by a +new aggregation of garments, very different from the others, which need +a little explanation. All the oil-skins in the slop-chest were used up +by the men last week, and we have had to manufacture some for them. +Many ships make a practice of taking to sea several suits of heavy +cotton (which oil-skins are made of), but without being treated with +the usual mixture of wax and oil. When, therefore, a ship’s regular +stock of oil-skins has been exhausted, the captain produces some of +these cotton suits and has them well rubbed with three coats of boiled +linseed oil, allowing each coat to dry; the result being thoroughly +water-tight, pliable garments, which will not crack, as slop-chest +oil-skins have a curious habit of doing. + +Around our stove for three or four days there have been suspended +several of these suits, so oil-sodden that to touch one means an +immense grease-spot. Nor is this the only inconvenience, for the whole +interior of the cabin reeks with the stifling fumes of hot, boiled oil. + +As far as we have been able to discover, there is but one article sold +from a slop-chest to sailors that is worth paying for, and that is the +stiff, black sou’wester. They are very comfortable, though as rigid as +a fireman’s leather helmet, and are lined with heavy red flannel, with +a band of the same that extends over the ears and back of the neck, +to the exclusion of the most penetrating snow-squalls. The face is +protected by a wide visor of the same inflexible stuff, which extends +far down over the neck. As the old man remarked, “One o’ these things +would stop a battle-axe.” However exaggerated this may be, though, they +do most effectively preserve the cranium from the severest Cape Horn +hail-squalls; you might as well tie a handkerchief over your head as to +wear an ordinary yellow sou’wester in one of these squalls, as far as +protection from the hail is concerned. + +We now have for tea every evening a dish entirely new to us. It is a +hind-quarter of pig steeped in brine for a fortnight; in other words, +an unsmoked ham; and it is the sweetest, juiciest pig meat imaginable. +I would rather eat it than the tenderest young sucking pig I ever +tasted. Another very successful article of food on board is the soup, +which is made as follows: Empty one of the large one-gallon tins of +mutton (put up in a liquor like canned sausages) into a saucepan; add +tinned carrots, tomatoes, rice, and barley, boil them together for +about thirty minutes, season well with a very little onion, pepper, +etc., and a rich, well-flavored soup will be obtained which would pass +for stock soup almost anywhere ashore. It is infinitely better than the +finest tinned soup. The mutton before alluded to is often purchased by +ships in large quantities and given to the men, alternating with salt +beef and pork; it is also much used for making meat pies for the cabin +table, for which it is well suited, the resemblance to fresh mutton +being remarkable. Our last pig has just been slaughtered; it seemed a +pity to kill the poor beast, for he was an intelligent, quaint little +fellow, very tame, and fond of being petted. Latitude, 50° 14′ south; +longitude, 90° 12′ west. + + ++July 31+ + +Our breeze from west-northwest has not been very strong for the past +twenty-four hours, and in addition we made two degrees of easting, +which is sad. This was the first morning for a month on which we were +able to eat our breakfast without lamplight, and in another week we +hope to dispense with it at supper also. The weather is by no means +clear yet, though, and we are now crossing the famous Roaring Forties, +that belt of fierce winds lying between the parallels of forty and +fifty on both sides of the equator, and clear skies cannot be expected +until we are north of 40° south at least. + +I expect to suffocate with suppressed hilarity before long if Mr. +Goggins continues to grow more absurd. Last night I went on deck about +ten o’clock and found the mate silently pacing athwartships near the +wheel-house. It was raining, and his costume itself was enough to +generate mirth in an owl. He was wrapped as in a sable shroud, in some +one’s long black oil-skin coat, which was so much too large for him as +to touch the deck, and the sleeves hung down half-way to his knees like +the arms of a walrus, while his head was covered with a very old, limp +sou’wester, also black, which fitted him like a skull-cap; it possessed +not even an indication of a brim, so that the drizzling rain trickled +down along the musty creases of his face, glistening in the wake of the +binnacle-lamp. His forsaken appearance was further enhanced by a couple +of yards of ancient gray rattlin-stuff that girded up the folds of his +coat and prevented his tramping on it. + +Without a word he ranged up alongside, and dropping his voice to a +rasping whisper, as is his wont whenever he is about to reveal a +startling theory, he said, mysteriously and very suddenly,-- + +“The human race is on the decline, sir.” + +I didn’t reply, and he continued, “Where are the strappin’ big fellows, +five-foot ten, five-foot eleven, and five-foot twelve, you used to see? +Where are they, I say? _Gone. Gone._ And wot do ye find now? The +present generation is growin’ up small and feeble, sir. They’re weak +and no good. And luk at the winds; they’re changin’ too. They hain’t +wot they used to be in the Atlantic; nor in the Pacific; nor off Cape +Horn. The Trades is changed. Everythink’s changed. I may be a hold +fool, sir, but I knows a thing or two. There’s more in my ’ead than +comes out with a fine-tooth comb.” + +All this with the most intense earnestness and so much stifled emotion +as to render him partially unintelligible, while he snapped and jerked +his long sleeves about in the most uncomfortable manner. + +Then he abruptly changed the thread of discourse and began, “You talk +about seas comin’ aboard, but you ought to been with me once when I +was mate o’ the ‘Commodore.’ ’Twas in the Santa Barbara Channel, and +blowin’ a whole gale o’ wind. We were runnin’, but bime by the old man +thought he’d heave her to. So we put the hellum down, and as she was +comin’ up, be gar’s sakes, sir, she shipped a sea that I thought was +goin’ to take the hatches off. ‘You’d better jump below and call the +second mate,’ said the cap’n; so I slipped down the after-companion-way +into the cabin, where the old man’s eight-year-hold son was jockeyin’ a +sofy that had fetched away, and says he, ‘Dad’s a-givin’ of ’er ’ell, +ain’t he?’ he says. Well, I called the second mate, and then the cap’n +says to us, ‘Go down and cut the lashin’s o’ that ere water-cask by the +after-hatch; she’ll wipe the houses off if she don’t free herself.’ +’Twas a funny thing to do, but he was cap’n; so we crawled down on the +main-deck where the watch was knockin’ about and cut the barrel adrift. +In less nor five seconds it went through the rail, and in a minute +there warn’t a capful o’ water on deck. It cost about ten feet o’ the +port bulwarks, but ’twas our only chance.” + +Now that we are well up past the rigors of Cape Horn, it actually seems +as though we were close to San Francisco, while five thousand miles +of latitude remain and fully fifty degrees of longitude, as ships are +forced well out into the Pacific by the northeast Trades. Latitude, 48° +30′ south; longitude, 88° 25′ west. + + ++August 1+ + +Oh, how divinely beautiful and grand the dark-blue floor of heaven is +after four weeks of hard gales, leaden, lowering clouds, and gray, +clammy mists! To-day for the first time the sun shone with dazzling +splendor, and although the altitude at meridian was only 26° 51′, +we agreed that never before in our lives had we known a day of equal +magnificence. And, even making allowance for our enthusiasm, the +weather was well-nigh perfect. Between sunrise and dusk not the +smallest cloud blurred the blue sky, which was reflected in a sea of +dazzling crests, whose valleys partook of that dark, superb, velvety +blue which is seen only where the ocean-bed sinks to immense depths, +and which Mark Twain says looks solid enough to walk upon. A sparkling +breeze whistled out of the west as exhilarating as pure oxygen, giving +us a speed for the twenty-four hours of nine knots. That blighting, +killing chill has vanished and one’s ears no longer tingle on exposure; +and at noon we enjoyed a temperature of 50°, a rise of twenty degrees +from the lowest. What a change in six days from 60° south, 76° west, +to 45° south, 88° west! Pretty good work that, in less than a week; it +is so much better than the average that it seems incredible. We cannot +believe that in so short a time we have been blown across what ought to +have been the worst part of the entire voyage. It was all the work of +the east wind. + +Just now there is a long, deep roll coming in from the southwest, +and I am earnestly looking for some of those immense waves for which +the South Pacific is famous. According to sailors, they usually +occur two or three days after new and full moon; and as we had a +new moon last night, perhaps we will see some of these rollers. +This reminds me, however, that scientists have determined, after +protracted observations, that the moon’s phases have no influence at +all on the weather. Sailors often say during a spell of bad weather, +“Well, there’s a change in the moon to-night; we’ll have a fine day +to-morrow”; and if chance supports their remark, heaven couldn’t shake +their belief. + +This heavy sea that is met with here is generally not at all ugly; +only a deep heave-up from the southward, often without wind, and is +said to be one of the most impressive of all oceanic phenomena. The +South Atlantic as well as the Pacific is also visited periodically by +immense seas during calm weather. At St. Helena and Ascension they are +called “rollers,” while at Fernando de Noronha and on the West African +coast they are known by the Portuguese name of “calemmas.” They seem +to occur chiefly in January, and, strange to say, they invariably +came from the northwest. The quotation that follows is from the pen +of Captain S. P. Oliver, who visited St. Helena in 1881 in one of the +Union steamers: + +“These rollers set in from the northwest on Thursday, January 13, with +unusual severity, but lulled somewhat on the following day, Friday, +only to recur with abnormal force on Saturday, attaining their maximum +strength on Saturday night, so that the spectacle on Sunday morning was +grand and magnificent, while the weather was bright and calm. It was +surprising to see the spray of these deep ocean waves hurled by sheer +force, for there was no wind, like fountains over the huge cliffs of +Goat Pound Ridge and Horse Pasture, which rise perpendicularly seven +hundred feet sheer out of the sea. The force of these enormous billows +was spent by Sunday night, and gradually subsided into the normal calm +on Monday morning.” + +At our present rate of sailing a fortnight would see us on the equator, +but if we cross it in three weeks it will be fine work. What sort +of luck are we going to have between these westerly winds and the +southeast Trades? That is one of the crucial points of the voyage that +remain, another being, how far south will the northeast Trades blow? + +We had a little excitement to-day at dinner. Ever since our cabin fire +has been going, it has been the custom of the steward to put a can of +whatever vegetable we were to have that day for dinner upon the top of +the stove to heat; the proper way, of course, is to place the can in +a dish of water and that in turn upon the stove or what not. To-day +it was a tin of string-beans, and the steward, fully an hour before +dinner, put the can upon the stove, which was nearly red-hot. (The +warmer the day the hotter the fire, here as elsewhere.) When the soup +had been cleared away, the gentle, timid little Malay took the tin into +the pantry and attacked it with a can-opener. But no sooner was the +metal pierced than the whole pantry was filled with a suffocating steam +that rushed hissing out of the vent with the most astonishing fury. +We sat aghast. The old man cursed a little and the mate got up, but +instantly thought better of it and sat down again. And still the steam +came belching out of the can, which had fallen down and was shooting +about the pantry like a demented steam-cylinder, while we could dimly +perceive the slender form of the little steward through the pungent +vapory clouds making courageous efforts to lay hold of the bewitched +bean-can. For nearly a minute steam continued to escape with such force +that it almost shrieked; and had the tin remained another five minutes +on the stove it must certainly have exploded and scattered boiling +water, beans, and jagged fragments of tin and lead about the room. + +Last evening at supper a bottle of Apollinaris burst in my hand with +a loud report as I was opening it, scaring the valiant Goggins into +upsetting a full cup of tea upon a clean cloth, for which the old man +fixed him with his eye and held him thus for quite half a minute during +an awful silence. + +If only for the sake of the sailors we are anxious to get into warm +weather again as soon as possible. Now that they have removed the +mufflers, etc., from their necks and heads, we can see how pale and +washed out most of them are. There are only two among them who do not +bear ocular proof of the hardships of a month in the Southern Ocean +in July. Paddy is perhaps the worst looking of the whole crew, though +he cannot be thirty years of age. This is due probably to his never, +under any circumstances, shirking his work, and to his exerting himself +more than any one else in the ship. Indeed, he was so full of nerve +and energy in the worst weather, that the captain surprised us once by +saying, pointing to Paddy on a yard-arm in a heavy squall, “There’s +what I call a brave man; he doesn’t know what fear is.” The skipper +didn’t mean to insinuate that Paddy was courageous for going out on the +yard at that moment; he was thinking about his general conduct. + +Poor Paddy’s arms from wrist to elbow are perfect mountain-chains of +sea-boils, and he looks as ghastly and pallid as a corpse, with pointed +nose and staring eyes; his entire appearance has changed. It may be +interesting to add that the majority of foremast hands do not live to +be forty-three years old. + +I forgot to say that for the first time in five weeks the mate shaved +for dinner to-day, and so sleek and blue and shiny and naked did it +make him look, that it was almost a shock when he sat down opposite us. +Latitude, 45° 2′ south; longitude, 87° 40′ west. + + ++August 2+ + +This day was even finer than yesterday, except that since ten this +forenoon we haven’t had much wind. But the weather is warmer, 48° at 8 ++A.M.+, and the sea is as placid and still and clear as under +the line. All the ground-swell has disappeared, and the great, level +expanse of the mighty South Pacific stretches on all sides in tiny +crinkles, frosted here and there by a crisp sparkle of froth; and the +sea-rim bounds the view in a circle as sharp and black as ink. It was +a day of almost tropic beauty, save that the air lacked the ineffable +balm characteristic of a day at sea between Cancer and Capricorn. We +rejoice at seeing the sky-sails once more expanded to the breeze, for +to-day the three yards were crossed, giving to the ship a fine-weather +look. Juan Fernandez will soon be abeam, and then only a few degrees +more to the Trades, for we made three and a half degrees of latitude +yesterday and hardly any easting. How pleasant it is to think of the +approach of warm weather again, when we can lie in deck-chairs in the +shadow of the wheel-house with a good book, or pass away the hours with +a backgammon- or cribbage-board! + +We are very much pleased to find how free this ship is from roaches +that usually abound in sailing vessels; the only member of that +objectionable family that we have yet perceived was a small red one; +of the large, black cockroaches we have not seen one, though on the +“Mandalore” we were told that they were numerous on all wooden ships. +Neither have we discovered any of the more villanous creatures, which +cannot be said of many transatlantic mail steamers. + +A fact worthy of note, as deplorable as it was unexpected, is that +since passing the meridian of Cape Horn we have not seen a single +albatross. Indeed, during the whole passage we haven’t seen more than a +dozen of them, they having been most numerous between the river Plate +and Staten Land. In truth, the albatross seems to be disappearing, +which is not astonishing when it is considered that many ship-masters +either use them as rifle-targets or catch them by the half-dozen +with hook and line, and take the quills and down home to sweethearts +and wives. Is it not odd, by the way, that there are more benedicts +among sea-captains than are to be found among the men of any other +profession? Yet long-voyage skippers, who are invariably married men, +see their wives only once a year. + +Perhaps the albatross has been driven away into regions even more +solitary than Cape Horn, but it is my belief that they are gradually +vanishing, which is to be much lamented. They are of no apparent use +to mankind, but neither is the tiger; yet if that royal beast were +upon the eve of extermination, as our bison is, there would be a great +wailing heard in the land. The albatross, be it said, has all the regal +dignity of the bison; and no one who has not seen it can imagine the +imperial flight of a full-grown wanderer. Latitude, 41° 35′ south; +longitude, 86° 56′ west. + + ++August 3+ + +Pleasant northerly breezes, a smooth sea, and brilliant sunshine +gladdened our hearts this morning, and at noon we found ourselves +well north of 40°. The wind hauled to the northward somewhat during +the night, though, so that, with the variation, we did not make good +a better course than northeast by north, and are now heading for Juan +Fernandez in 34° south. + +We have made a disagreeable discovery about Timothy Powers in the +port-watch. I don’t remember whether it was mentioned before or not, +but Tim was said to have fallen off the forward house two weeks ago +and sprained his right arm. From the first the captain never could +discover anything wrong with it, but as the fellow insisted that he +suffered terrible pains in that member, there was naught to do for +a while but to believe him. At last the skipper grew tired of Tim’s +loafing, and, going out on the main-deck this morning, he gave the +Irishman a very sulphurous dressing down and compelled him to turn to. +He was sent forward to clean out the pig-pen, and he went to work with +a woful countenance to lift off two planks that served as an apology +for a roof to the sty. He couldn’t move them with one hand, so he +stopped, looked carefully about to see whether or not he was observed +by the mates or any of his friends, deliberately took his arm out of +the sling in which he still insisted on carrying it, lifted the heavy +planks down with ease, put his arm back in the sling, resumed his +pitiful look, turned to reach for a broom, and found the eyes of the +second mate fixed steadily upon him. Mr. Rarx had been concealed and +had witnessed the whole affair. That settled it. Tim almost fainted +from shock, and from now till the end of the voyage his will not be a +bed of roses. Think how this creature has been imposing not only on +the captain and officers, but on his fellow-shipmates as well! For two +entire weeks his most arduous duty consisted in keeping the lookout on +the forward house in the daytime, perfectly well, with all night below, +while his friends, ill and drenched to the skin, had to dive around +the main-deck day and night with chattering teeth, two hands short in +the worst weather,--two hands, because old Neilsen has been laid up +in his bunk with general debility, too weak to even put his foot on +the main-deck. Tim is the sort of animal who contributes much to the +misery and suffering of sailors. A captain, for instance, catches a +man in such a deceit, never forgets it and refuses to believe the next +man, who actually has hurt himself, so that the real sufferer has to +bear the penalty of the other’s fraud. It is not a criminal offence, +but a low, contemptible trick; though just such a one as a man with a +face like Tim’s would be guilty of. The mate’s powers of divination +are not particularly acute, for he observed one day off the river +Plate, looking at Tim, “There goes a feller that _I_ call a good, +faithful man.” + +At dinner to-day I chanced to remark that, as we had had such benefits +from the easterly wind, we ought to accept our three points of easting +now without grumbling. Mr. Goggins, however, is a fearful kicker, even +for a sailor; so, thinking to please the old man, he instantly replied, +“We ain’t had forty-eight hours o’ good luck on the hull passage.” This +was so remarkable a statement that my wife was provoked into saying, +gently but positively, “The man who talks like that doesn’t deserve +to reach port for six months more.” “Well, we ain’t,” quoth Goggins, +doggedly. Then I took a hand (it is usually best not to argue with him +and the skipper), and asked as sarcastically as I could, “I suppose +that three days’ easterly gale doesn’t count? And how about the first +sixteen days of the voyage? You’re enough of a sailor, I suppose, +though, to have forgotten all that.” I thought that he was floored; but +he was possessed of more vitality than one would have supposed, for he +came back at me with, “Well, the yards was ag’in the backstays all the +time in the North Atlantic.” + +This was such a novel stand to take that we let him alone, so that +he got up and tramped out of the cabin much inflated. What possible +difference it could make whether or not the yards touched the backstays +as long as the ship lay her course and went through the water was +beyond my powers of reasoning. + +We are now followed by an immense number of Cape pigeons. What merry, +blithesome little fellows they are, apparently all good-nature and +love for one another as they circle around the ship, almost brushing +the standing-gear in their mad, tumbling flight, now skimming just +above the sea, now soaring over the mast-heads, and sweeping down again +for very joy that they are made! But let a bucket of table refuse be +thrown over the side, and then away with good-fellowship and fraternal +affection. It’s a true case of every one for himself and the devil take +the hindmost. No sooner does the refuse touch the water than two or +three catch sight of it, and in an instant fifty pigeons are involved +in furious battle. They fairly scream in their excitement, and beat +each other with their powerful wings, and snap viciously right and left +with sharp, curved bills. Then one lucky one will perchance seize a +choice morsel. Instantly he is set upon by a dozen of his companions, +who mercilessly bear down upon him before he can rise from the surface +with his prize, and actually beat him down under water in their fierce +efforts to get at the tempting mouthful; but so plucky are they, that +we have never seen one relinquish anything when his bill has once +closed upon it. + +While the pigeons are engaged in this deadly strife a great molly-hawk +sometimes looms up astern, having sighted the combat from afar, and +dashing into the centre of the squabbling flock, which scatters before +his huge wings and wide, formidable beak, like crows before a vulture, +he snaps up the bone of contention and soars away to enjoy it at his +leisure. After the rapacious monster has departed from out their midst, +the dejected little creatures return, and hover over any particle of +food that may remain, ever and anon diving far below the surface for a +crumb that they perceive deep down in the placid depths, rising again +with such amazing buoyancy and energy as to lift themselves clear out +of the water, like an inflated bladder suddenly released. They afford +us much amusement; but another six hundred miles farther north will, no +doubt, see the last of our merry little companions. Latitude, 39° 35′ +south; longitude, 85° west. + + ++August 4+ + +Although the lovely clear skies have for a while disappeared, being +obscured by the most clearly defined stratus clouds that I ever saw, +the weather is bracing and dry, with a sea so smooth that it never +would be supposed that we were hundreds of miles from any land larger +than Juan Fernandez or its neighbor, Mas-á-Fuera. Each day sees a rise +of two or three degrees in the air and sea, and we are moving well up +into the heart of the thirties. We will, no doubt, soon fall in with +vessels from Chilean ports bound around the Horn; but those from San +Francisco have been driven so far to the westward by the Trades that +in this latitude they are away over in 125°. The wind is still to +the northward of west, and we continue to make more easting than is +desirable; because, if we have to steer much farther in towards the +land, our course when we take the Trades will have to be northwest in +order to cross the line in the right place, which, of course, would be +dead before the wind, an undesirable position in a square-rigger, as in +that event only the after-sails draw. + +Captain Scruggs was quite a treat at the mid-day meal, for he appeared +in one of his majestic phases, when no one can tell him anything that +he doesn’t already know. My wife unhappily mentioned that this would +be fine yachting weather. Now, the mere mention of a yacht nearly +always upsets him; and we, therefore, had to listen while he disputed +vigorously with himself for some minutes; and he finally concluded with +the assertion that he could take the “Volunteer” and sail right round +the “Defender”; he knew the old one was better, anyhow, than that there +new brass boat, or whatever she was made of. On suggesting that he +might find some little difficulty in consummating such an undertaking, +he replied, “Well, I’ve got that confidence in myself; I used to sail +small boats when I was a boy, and I ain’t forgot how.” + +He concluded his remarks, always delivered in explosions as though +challenging you to deny them, with a disquisition on jams. He believes +in the theory that all kinds of preserves are boiled down together, +and that different labels are then stuck on the tins. “Look at that, +now,” he growled, pointing to one on the table. “What d’ye call +that?” I showed him the device of a fig on the wrapper, with the name +beneath it. “Lemme taste it,” said he, plunging a knife deep into the +preserves. “There, what’d I tell you? ’Taint fig jam, it’s currants; +they hain’t got the right libel onto it,” he explained. + +When dinner was over we repaired, as usual, to the after-cabin, while +the old man strode heavily back into the dining-room, called the mate, +and abruptly demanded, “Have you got that spigotti out yet?” + +“What’s that, sir?” asked the mate. + +“Spigotti, spigotti; like macaroni. Don’t you know by this time what +spigotti is?” said the skipper, very angrily, for he knew that he +didn’t have the name right and that we could hear him. + +“No, sir, Cap’in Scruggs, sir, I’m d---- if I do,” stammered the +hapless Goggins; for we could perceive the captain through a chink in +the door bristled up like a ruffled bantam, and the hideous, grisly old +mate, his eyes popping out like a pair of deviled kidneys, racking his +brain for a translation of spigotti. + +But the particularly scintillating jewel in the skipper’s galaxy of +remarkable pronunciations is his name for the inhabitants of Chile. +They become Chilaneans; though, now that I think of it, I have heard +other ship-masters put themselves to the trouble of so pronouncing +it. Where do they get that extra syllable from? Now, in the case of +Cubians, it’s different. They all say Cuby, so why not Cubians? It’s +logical. But Chilaneans is unreasonable. + +Speaking of Cuba reminds me of what a Chesapeake Bay fisherman asked me +once, “Hain’t Mayceo fit with the Cubians before?” This was just before +Maceo was killed. + +Captain Scruggs seems utterly unable to avoid contradiction, and, +being possessed of very uncouth manners (which he nevertheless knows +quite well how to correct), it may be conceived how trying an ordeal +half an hour at the table with him must be. “Don’t talk with him, +then,” is very easy to say; we don’t talk between meals to him, but at +table it is almost necessary to make one or two observations in thirty +minutes; and whenever the silence becomes overwhelming and we hazard a +remark, it is disheartening to listen continuously to “_I_ don’t +_think_ so.” Latitude, 37° 3′ south; longitude 83° 20′ west. + + ++August 5+ + +Just another such day as yesterday, with the sky obscured by +sharply-cut, stratus clouds. The only perceptible difference is that +to-day the air is a little more balmy; the wind and sea are precisely +the same, and our experience so far has been that the Pacific is most +aptly named. Of course we ought to be reaching smooth water now, +though it is often rough in the southeast Trades; the surprising part +is that we had such a quiet sea in the stormy forties. The air has +been wonderfully soft all day, the thermometer indicating 58° at noon, +although the sky was completely overcast. + +Mas-á-Fuera bore east-northeast true at mid-day, distant in round +numbers one hundred miles, with Juan Fernandez two hundred miles away +in about the same direction. The appearance of this latter island is +said to be strikingly beautiful, though in size it is only thirteen +miles by four. It consists of a series of steep, rugged hills, formed +by huge boulders piled one upon the other, the loftiest reaching +an altitude of three thousand feet. Palms, tree-ferns, and a thick +undergrowth partially cover these rocky declivities, growing in very +shallow earth, which slips away when one attempts to scale the +precipices, and it is said that on this account the culminating peak +has never yet been ascended. + +Juan Fernandez, which lies in the approximate corresponding latitude of +the Madeiras, is indissolubly associated with Robinson Crusoe, Defoe +having based his tale upon the adventures of one Alexander Selkirk, +of Fifeshire, Scotland, who was put ashore there in 1704, at his own +request, by Captain Straddling of the “Cinque Porte” galley, with +whom, as master, Selkirk had quarrelled. It is highly improbable, +however, that Juan Fernandez is the island pictured by Defoe, as his +descriptions in Crusoe do not always tally with the conformations of +Fernandez. Modern writers incline to the belief that Trinidad, off the +Venezuelan coast, was the island in “Robinson Crusoe.” Selkirk lived +on Juan Fernandez until 1709, when he was rescued by the ship “Duke” +from what seems to have been a by no means intolerable imprisonment. +Mas-á-Fuera, which means “more to sea,” called so by the Spaniards, +though far smaller than its neighbor, is even loftier still, one peak +attaining a height of four thousand feet. + +In every spot where men do congregate there will nearly always be found +one silent individual, from whom it is apparently impossible to extract +a single syllable. We had one such on the “Mandalore,” an English +seaman with a Board of Trade certificate. During the whole voyage of +eighteen weeks he was never heard to utter a word unless he had some +unavoidable reason. Aboard the “Higgins” there is a man who can give +him cards and spades on taciturnity, for he hasn’t been known to speak +by either mate since the eleventh of May. This contemplative genius is +Karl, he whom Rarx so brutally struck in the face with the block away +back in the South Atlantic. Even then no word passed his lips, though +he did groan He isn’t surly--it is just his way--and the mates do +not mind now when he doesn’t answer, as he is manifestly so willing. +For torpid stupidity and phlegmatic stolidity his equal would be hard +to find, and we have often watched him at work and wondered, “Can it +really talk?” The most unexpected and painful surprise cannot draw +from him the slightest exclamation. For instance, a fortnight ago, one +afternoon at the pumps, a big sea surged over the side, but most of the +men saved themselves by jumping up on the fife-rail, except Karl and +Brün. Indeed, the latter had saved himself, and was kneeling on the +rail holding fast to the mizzen-royal-braces; Karl’s mind, though, was +far too numb to grapple with such an emergency, so the water carried +him off his feet, wrenched away his grip on the pump-handle, and was +sweeping him across the deck, when he grasped one of Brün’s feet in his +flight. This broke the latter’s hold on the brace, and away both flew +into the water-ways, where they bobbed around for a while in thirty-six +inches of icy brine. Brün was in a rage, of course, but not so Karl. +His wooden face arose by and by from the roaring scuppers, placid and +tranquil; he then by degrees found his legs, waited for a weather-roll, +shot back to the pumps, and resumed his place, totally unmoved. All +this time he was as dumb as a giraffe. + +Again, yesterday afternoon, he was doing some work on the starboard +main-brace-bumpkin, when he slipped and went half under water before +he caught the bight of a rope that luckily hung over the side. Even +this didn’t trouble him in the smallest degree; he didn’t even wink his +codfish eyes, but seated himself again upon the bumpkin and proceeded +with his job. + +Toward the end of the third month at sea most people begin to suffer +somewhat from dyspepsia, induced, no doubt, by the absence of fresh +meat and vegetables, though the best tinned varieties of the latter +certainly taste as good as the fresh. In the old days people, it is +true, did not have the great amount of such edibles to choose from as +they do now in going to sea, but they had plenty of young pigs and +sheep and chickens, which atoned in measure for the lack of canned +vegetables. Indeed, the deck of a Yankee ship fifty years ago looked +like the conventional barn-yard, with its pig-and sheep-stalls, +hennery, and not infrequently an enclosure for a couple of cows. +Latitude, 34° 5′ south; longitude, 83° 15′ west. + + ++August 6+ + +Gradually, since daylight, the form of the clouds has been changing +till they have assumed that of cumulus, and as the wind is letting +go, with an appearance of showers ahead, we seem to be upon the +brink of a change in the weather. For seven days the wind has been +at west-northwest, with never a shift of two whole points, while +the variation of the aneroid during that period was not more than +fifteen-hundredths of an inch. We are practically on the thirtieth +parallel at present, so that in eleven days we have made thirty degrees +of latitude. Steadily, too, the temperature has been rising, standing +at 59° at eight this morning for both air and water; a still more +significant indication of our northing, however, is that last night the +fire in the cabin stove was allowed to die out, to-day being the first +time in thirty-eight days that we have been without artificial heat; +thus for almost six weeks has the stove been going full blast, for it +was first lighted in 38° south in the Atlantic. + +It is always an interesting thing to note the different attitude of +captains toward their chief mates on long-voyage ships. Some are +extremely affable, others are reserved and haughty to an absurd +degree. Where men are confined together in so small a space as a +ship’s deck for months at a stretch I think that a captain ought to +be reasonably unbending, but always dignified, in his manner toward +the chief officer, though, of course, much depends upon the sort of +man the latter is. Captain Scruggs is by turns civil and positively +wolfish toward Mr. Goggins; and one of the most curious phases of the +old man’s character is that he invariably crushes the mate whenever the +latter says something that he thinks will please the skipper. Night +before last, at supper, during a conversation about British Columbia, +the mate turned to the captain and beamingly said, “I remember the +time, sir, thirty years ago, when you used to could talk Chinook with +the best of ’em.” To his chagrin, though, the old man growled, “Never +knew six words of Chinook in my life”; while as a matter of fact he +used to talk it well. Mr. Goggins returned to the charge, however, and +again essayed some remarks, during which he ventured to hope that the +wind would back into the southward and let us make some westing, very +reasonably supposing that here was a sentiment that any skipper would +endorse. But, though the captain has been in a white heat lately at our +easting, he observed that he “didn’t care a chew er terbakker where the +wind went to,” which so angered the mate that he answered quite hotly, +“Well, so far as _I_ go, I’m sure _I_ don’t care ’ow long +we’re at sea; but I _know_ you do and so do the owners.” “I say I +don’t care a rap, rap, rap!” stormed the skipper, and we looked for a +row; but the mate slid off the bench and disappeared. + +Strange man; unfortunate disposition. He must contradict. He feels it +his duty to differ from every one else, even if he knows that he is +wrong. This morning I remarked, as we sat down to breakfast, “I see the +thermometer’s 59° this morning.” “58-1/2°, I think,” he corrected. +Now, in the first place, it was 59°; and in the second place, he +wouldn’t have known it if it had been half a degree lower, for he can’t +read a book without powerful lenses, much less the rusty scale of a +thermometer a foot above his head. Latitude, 30° 44′ south; longitude, +82° 30′ west. + + ++August 7+ + +“Unhook that double main-sheet! Square the yards!” Oh, welcome, joyous +words! Even if the wind is not more than a breath, it allows us now to +lay the course and with a little to spare. + +There are some ultra-nautical landsmen who will vigorously object to +the first word in this day’s log, and will insist that I ought to have +written “cast-off” instead; but if these individuals would go to sea +they would learn that there are many expressions heard aboard ship +which no argument could persuade them to use, for fear of not being +considered _au fait_ in nautical nomenclature. We have all seen +the horror of the pale youth with the large steam yacht when some one +in his hearing has suggested going “down-stairs” instead of “below.” +Yet many deep-water sailors say “down-stairs.” And one of Captain +Scruggs’s characteristic orders is, “Let the fore-t’gallant-yard +run down, Mr. Rarx, and tie up the sail,” instead of “Clew up the +fore-t’gant’-s’l,” while he himself ordered the double main-sheet +“unhooked.” + +To resume. For seven or eight days we have been jammed hard on the +wind, and while we have made very excellent northing, we have fallen +away to the eastward so much as to well-nigh overbalance our difference +of latitude. In yesterday afternoon’s watch, however, the ship began to +come up, and all last night we steered northwest, our course, making +fairly good way, though it fell calm at daybreak, but breezed a bit +again, and the yards were checked in a couple of points more at 10 ++A.M.+ According to Findlay, the average time from 50° south in +the Pacific to San Francisco is fifty-four days, and as we are somewhat +ahead of the average since leaving that parallel, we can stand a good +deal of light weather and still make a fair passage. It cannot be +denied, though, that from the equator to 40° south on the other side +we had a remarkable streak of bad luck; and I expect that the “A. G. +Ropes,” which sailed from New York thirteen days ahead of us, will make +a faster passage than we will. In parenthesis I might remark that most +of the large ship-owners give their captains ten dollars per day for +every day under one hundred and twenty. For instance, if a man makes +the passage in one hundred and ten days, he is entitled to one hundred +dollars. + +It may be that the curious would like to know how we passed those +dreary weeks off Cape Horn, and here was our scheme, though, in truth, +our habits then were about the same as they are now. I rose at seven, +breakfasted at quarter to eight, and walked the poop alone till nearly +eleven. On days that were very rough, it was a continual source of +pleasure to chock myself off between the stern-bitts and speculate, +when a particular wave was still several hundred yards off, whether +it was going to break on board or whether we would clear it. It is a +fascinating spectacle, this, and an hour often passed like five minutes +as I gazed with ever-increasing awe at the resistless power of the +huge, crested breakers. + +Then down to our room, where we read “Farthest North” aloud till noon, +when my wife made her first appearance. Dinner then occupied us till +nearly one, when we went on deck to walk for half an hour, if not too +rough. Down again to write up our journals, plot off the course on +our own chart, and note down in the government book the meteorological +observations made at Greenwich noon. This brought us to four o’clock, +when we again went on deck to remain till dark, and then a book claimed +us until supper, a little after five o’clock. Deck once more from six +till seven, in spite of any weather; then books again until nine, when +we went up for a breath of air again before turning in. + +Exciting? No, truth compels me to admit that it was not, although +no doubt some of the days would have been lively enough for almost +anybody. Those who are sustained by excitement must never by any chance +allow themselves to be persuaded to try a deep-water voyage, no matter +how completely they may have convinced themselves of their fondness for +the sea. A true and abiding love for the sea is a very rare attribute +in any man. I mean that fondness for the ocean which enables him to +live contentedly and happily upon it for half a year at a time, and +to accept uncomplainingly whatever chance may provide. The monotony +of a twenty weeks’ voyage to ninety-nine per cent. of civilized +humanity would be nearly incalculable; and in the case of one sent to +sea for health’s sake, it is entirely conceivable that the depression +consequent upon such a voyage would, in some degree, counteract the +beneficial effects of sea-air. It is owing to a peculiar temperament +that a few people can stay at sea for an indefinite number of months +without in any way tiring of the life. To these few the state of the +weather and the direction of the wind are absolutely immaterial. A +calm of a fortnight or a month of head-winds, either in the Tropics or +the Southern Ocean, are regarded by them merely as events which they +expected to encounter when they sailed. + +In spite of everything said and written to the contrary, I believe +that in every sailor, from seaman to master, his love for the sea is +never extinguished. Let them assert, times innumerable, that they hate +the life, and yet see how they all return to it after a little while +ashore. It is of no avail to argue that because a man is bred to the +sea he is incapacitated for duties ashore; I have known of several +ship-masters who, through influence, obtained lucrative positions in +various firms, but who resigned them, unable to further withstand the +magic influence which the deep sea exerts over those who have once +fallen under her resistless enchantment. Nor does the case of the +common sailor differ. I once knew a respectable foremast hand who +obtained the position of driver of a laundry-wagon in Boston. This was +a nice job, but I awaited developments; and, sure enough, in three or +four months he signed as bosun of a Japan-bound oil-ship. Even the most +shiftless of sailors could surely use a pick or shovel dirt ashore, yet +they prefer the less profitable and inconceivably more arduous duties +of the life before the mast, simply because they cannot overcome the +wondrous allurements of Old Ocean. Latitude, 28° 52′ south; longitude, +83° 12′ west. + + ++August 8+ + +We have almost every reason to believe that we have taken the southeast +Trades. I say almost every reason, for the only cause for doubting is +that we are so far south yet, and the wind, after all, may not amount +to anything. In any event, we are all astonished at such an outburst +of luck, except the skipper, who testily replies to interrogations, +“This _may_ go into the Trades; it certainly is _not_ them +_yet_.” At 4.30 yesterday afternoon, just as we had composed +ourselves for the hazy, yellow calm that lay upon the sea, a light air +from astern overhauled us, and backing into the southeast in a few +minutes, breezed up from that desirable quarter in a most refreshing +manner, so that ever since we have averaged seven knots. This, if it +lasts, is a most remarkable stroke of fortune, as ships often lie idle +for a week or more between the westerly and the southeasterly winds; +and to run from one into the other, with only an hour’s calm, is as +unusual as it is welcome. We are inclined to believe that, after all, +we will make the voyage in one hundred and thirty days,--that is, in +six weeks more. On this subject the old man is, of course, as dumb as a +lobster, and resents any such suggestions by obstinately staring in the +opposite direction; while Mr. Rarx, a man of great experience in the +North Pacific, which is now probably the only _bête-noir_ left to +us, even goes so far as to say that five additional weeks will anchor +us in San Francisco Bay. + +We have now left behind us that most solitary and vast portion of +the South Pacific almost entirely devoid of the smallest fragments +of land, and we are entering that part thickly spattered with rocks +and islets that most people never heard of, not to mention the +thousands of islands to the westward that form the great clusters of +the Society, Friendly, Samoan, Gilbert, Ellice, Marquesas, Caroline, +New Hebrides, Ladrone, and Marshall groups. For instance, in our +neighborhood at present are the islets of San Felix, San Ambrosio, +Podesta, Sala-y-Gomez, and the Emily and Minnehaha rocks; doubtless +there are dozens of others besides, too insignificant to appear on a +chart of the world, such as I work with. These few, however, will serve +to show how thickly sown the Pacific is with insular obstructions; +and it is for this reason that this ocean, bar that part south of 30° +south, has never seemed to me as desolate or lonely as the Atlantic, +north or south. Behold how fittingly Nature has cleared the North +Atlantic of nearly every indication of land and has left an abundance +of clear, open water, through which rush the great steamers which +connect Europe and America, safe in the knowledge that even if they +drifted about for months with disabled machinery there would be +practically nothing to interrupt their wanderings. The most remarkable +proof of this was the case of the large schooner “Fannie E. Woolston,” +timber-laden, which drifted about for thirty months, covering six +thousand miles in that time, an average of over three knots per hour, +without approaching land. This was ascertained by means of the reports +of many different vessels which passed close to the “Woolston” during +her perigrinations. Indeed, the only island that lies at all near the +track of steamers bound from the more northerly European ports to those +north of Baltimore is the terrible Sable Island, the “Graveyard of +the Atlantic,” in 44° north, 60° west, about two hundred miles east +of Halifax. More vessels are lost here than at any other spot in open +water, and its number of casualties are probably only exceeded by such +shoals as the Goodwin Sands. + +Turn, then, to the North Pacific, and it will be seen that, with the +exception of the higher northerly latitudes, through which lies the +great circle track between San Francisco or Vancouver and Japan, that +immense body of water is literally dusted with coral reefs and islands; +though it is necessary to examine a large chart to appreciate this, as +no geography will answer. + +There are recognized among men several great classes or divisions of +bores, such as those who magnify their own greatness, those who can +remember how much colder the winters used to be in their boyhood, +or, if in New York, those whose memory recalls the period when milch +cows lowed where the City Hall now stands, and swine rooted in the +dirt upon the site of the Post Office. But there remains yet a genus +of bores so infinitely surpassing those mentioned that they may be +said to form an entirely different family. Fortunately for mankind, +comparatively few persons are victimized by them, by reason of their +profession; but in those parts where they do congregate, they are as +deadly as Mark Twain’s brain-fever bird. Allusion is made to those +venerable and crusty master-mariners who extemporize by the hour upon +that grand race of sailors who used to man the wind-jammers in days +of yore. Start them once on this subject, and woe to the anguished +wretch snared in their toils. One would think, in listening to them, +that they were talking about an extinct race who inhabited the seas +about the middle of the nineteenth century, and, like the apteryx and +platypus, had been suddenly and mysteriously exterminated; and when +one ventures to suggest that surely there must be some resemblance to +those exalted beings in the men who now sail before the mast, these +aged sea-hedgehogs bristle up and fly in a passion as they descant upon +the puny breed who now defile the honorable name of sailor with their +pampered notions and blubber-head stupidity. These persons ought to be +confined in some retreat for the rest of their lives; the disease is +incurable and terribly infectious, for every sea-captain over fifty +years of age suffers more or less from the unhappy malady. + +It is true that the steamer has cut huge swaths in the sailing-ship +trade, but there are still a vast number of square-riggers left which +pay good dividends. It seems to be the prevalent opinion that steam +has spoiled seamen for sailing-ship work, but in reality the men who +ship for long voyages never do anything else, and let steamers severely +alone. Many good men, no doubt, begin their careers as lamp-trimmers, +etc., in steamers, and usually remain in them, and in this way sailing +ships, no doubt, lose a number of fine men; but it is well to bear in +mind that deep-water and steamship foremast hands are very different +beings in many respects. + +As noted in an earlier page, some people are crying now that as soon as +the Central American canal is cut through it will be the instantaneous +death-knell of the long-voyage sailing vessel, but those who really +understand the business of transportation by water do not agree to this +by any means. Here are the words of Arthur Sewall, than whom few, if +any, are more competent to speak on the matter: “As long as the wind +blows and water flows there will be sailing ships built and business +to keep them busy. There will always be a chance for them to compete +against steam in traffic where time is not a factor, or where delay +is actually a good thing. For instance, there is the wheat crop. In +July or August it begins to be ready for delivery, and in a short time +the whole year’s supply is ready for shipment. But the consumption +of a crop stretches over a whole year. Shipping wheat in sailing +vessels consumes several months’ time, which would otherwise require +the storing of the wheat. Sailing freights are actually less than +steam freights, plus storage charges. So, you see, here is business +which sailing ships can hold. Then, again, take railroad materials, +especially rails, which are manufactured faster than they can be used, +and where the delay of sail over steam is better than storage. Of +course, as in any other business, it is a case of the survival of the +fittest, and as smaller ships are relatively more expensive than large +ones, small ships cannot make money, and will have to make way for +large ones.” + +An excellent precedent in favor of the continuance of sailing vessels +is that subject in connection with the Suez Canal. When this was a +thing accomplished it was said that no more square-riggers would go out +around Good Hope; yet consider the enormous amount of sail tonnage that +is despatched every year to India, China, Australia, and Japan, for +it is computed that eight hundred sailing vessels double Agulhas every +year in both directions, and as but few of the ships in the Eastern +trade have a carrying capacity of less than thirty-five hundred tons, +the amount of merchandise that passes the southern extremity of Africa +per annum foots up the imposing total of at least seven million tons. + +Mr. Goggins appeared at dinner to-day in a frock-coat! Can one conceive +the effect produced upon the mind by the contiguity of a frock-coat and +a red-flannel shirt. Certainly not. No one could unless he had seen it. +Goggins was monstrously proud of it, too, in spite of its being several +sizes too small for him, and ostentatiously got up during the soup and +officiated at the drawing of a pitcher of root-beer from the “kag” in +the corner, during which evolution he suddenly became embarrassed at +the unwonted attention centered upon himself, and in some way managed +to upset the pitcher all over the floor; and when he sat down he was +in such a state of excitement that his nasal whistlings and obligatos +were more piercing than ever before. And just think of this creature’s +name, Leander! Oh, heavens, it is too much! Latitude, 26° 54′ south; +longitude, 84° 50′ west. + + ++August 9+ + +Ninety days at sea, and another month cannot take us in, nor do we +desire it, in spite of our surroundings. The wind has freshened +constantly, and, being to the eastward of southeast, it has sent us +along at an eight-knot clip, steady and true, and we have done one +hundred and ninety miles in the twenty-four hours by the log, for we +have had no sights for three or four days. The temperature is almost +perfect, about 65° day and night, and as there is no sun to dazzle +one, reading on deck has once more become a joy. + +Yesterday afternoon MacFoy returned Nansen’s “First Crossing of +Greenland,” which he borrowed a few days ago; he is an intelligent man +and knows all of Nordenskjold’s works pretty thoroughly. There is a +notion, though, to which he clings with characteristic Scotch tenacity; +in spite of everything, he insists that Nansen started upon his last +great voyage in a steam whaler from San Francisco. + +But if this fellow is well read, what can be said of old Kelly, in +the mate’s watch. We pumped together yesterday afternoon and had much +conversation, during which he said that he hailed from Charleston, +but that his family had moved north to Troy when the war broke out, +and that his parents had brought him up strictly and decently. He +volunteered no reason for having turned sailor, but branched off +into literature, beginning with a pertinent quotation from Burns +and another from Moore. These led him on, and he expressed great +admiration for ancient history, concluding with a well-turned eulogy +on Gibbon’s “Rome,” with illustrations for preferring it to any other +account of that great empire. At first it seems extraordinary to find +so intelligent a man before the mast, living a beast’s life, and +surrounded by men with whom he has but little in common. Yet such +fellows are by no means uncommon at sea, for one often happens upon a +man in a Cape Horner’s forecastle whom Nature did not intend should be +there. + +How different is old Kelly’s conversation from that of the mate, +especially at dinner and supper, when he shouts out his witless jokes! +To-day he burst in with the following silly story, and it was totally +irrelevant to what we were talking about: “There was a hold feller I +knoo onct that lived in the country, and when ’e saw the telegrapht +wires put hup past ’is farm, ’e ’ung a pair ’o boots on ’em to send +’em to ’is son.” At the conclusion of such pleasantries his sense of +humor is so agitated that he seems upon the brink of spasms, and his +temporal arteries swell out as big as lead-pencils, while he chortles +and wheezes and gasps like an old tattered bellows. + +What quaint expressions sailors have, too! Mr. Rarx was talking about +athletics last night, and incidentally asked who was now the greatest +“hammer-heaver”; it must be remembered that objects at sea are never +thrown, they are always hove. + +As we approach the final quarter of the voyage we cannot help wishing +that we were going to land at Calcutta as we did before. Oh, the +incomparable delight, the unbounded pleasure of those two months in +India which followed the termination of our voyage in the “Mandalore”! +The memories of those nine weeks in British India carry with them a +charm perfectly indescribable; and were it given us to visit but one +more country on the globe during our lifetime, we would unhesitatingly +choose another stay in the land of the Himalayas. Latitude, 24° 28′ +south; longitude, 87° 5′ west. + + ++August 10+ + +Moderate southeasterly breezes, a smooth sea, and magnificent weather. +He who would not be happy here now must needs be hard to please. At +midnight we cut the circle of Capricorn, and have, happily, once +more entered the torrid zone, after an absence of fifty days, for it +was on June 20 that we passed Capricorn in the Atlantic. Verily, it +doesn’t seem as though almost two months have elapsed since we first +sighted the “Judas Dowes” that Sunday in the latitude of Rio. How time +speeds on at sea! A week does not seem longer than twenty-four hours, +and before we realize it they will be making ready the anchor. Our +progress is very gratifying, though the perversity of the skipper will +not allow him to believe or even to suppose that we have taken the +Trades. He has surprised us much in the last few days by going down +on the main-deck and assisting in the repair of the old sails. See +how inconsistent he is! He considers himself so infinitely above the +sailors that mere proximity to them under other circumstances, even +for a moment, carries infection with it; yet now, down he stalks to +the main-deck, off comes his coat, and down he drops flat, his short +fat legs sticking wide out before him like a brownie’s, as he turns to +in a cluster of the defiling sailors. For some days he sewed merrily +away on top of the deck-house, which was a different affair altogether, +and sail-making is a very agreeable pastime. But we were immeasurably +astonished at the arrogant Scruggs’s consorting thus with the foe. + +As the captain and I were pacing the poop at ten o’clock last evening, +the sky at the time being cloudless and the moon almost full, suddenly, +as we turned to go aft, we saw, over our shoulders, a dazzling glare +of light from forward, like a very bright lightning-flash, and, +turning quickly, we observed a ball of fire shoot by at right angles +to our course and disappear behind the foretop-gallant-sail. “What was +that?” said I. “Oh, that was just a meteor or whatever you call it,” +answered the skipper; “you often see ’em hereabouts. Last voyage one +bursted near the ship at night at the dark o’ the moon somewhere about +15° south, and most scared all hands to death.” Such exhibitions are +met with in all parts of the world, even in cold, high latitudes. I +remember the case of the large British ship “Cawdor,” Captain Jardella, +during one of her recent voyages from Swansea to San Francisco. +She made a very long passage on this occasion of one hundred and +eighty-four days. She had a terrible battering in the Southern Ocean, +and reported on arrival that off Cape Horn an enormous meteor plunged +into the sea with a stunning explosion, so close as to flood the decks. + +We learned last evening of a horrid accident that occurred on this ship +six weeks before we sailed on the present voyage. The mate spun the +yarn in these words: “We had just warped into the docks in Brooklyn to +discharge, when a gang o’ stevedores came over the side to rig the gear +for unloadin’. ‘Where’s the cargo pendant?’ says the boss stevedore. +‘There it is,’ says I, ‘and there’s a gantline, too,’ I says, pointin’ +to a coil o’ brand-noo manila. Well, they began for to rig the falls, +while I went into the cabin for dinner. I seen one o’ the fellers on +the mainyard as I went in, but I didn’t think no more about it for +maybe ten minutes, when I heard a sickenin’ crash, and out I jumped. +Did you ever hear a man fall from aloft? Hit’s awful, sir. When I got +out on deck there was a lot o’ stevedores standin’ around lookin’ at +somethin’ on the main-’atch. I didn’t want to look at what I knew it +was, but I had to; so I shoved my way through, and there lay the big, +heavy man I’d seen on the mainyard. I didn’t see anythin’ wrong with +him first off till I went round on t’other side, and there was his head +cracked open just as if you’d dropped a mushmellon on the ground, and +the hinsides was spattered all over the ’atch cover. Plenty o’ these +here stevedores git hurt, and often it’s the fault o’ rotten gear, and +then there’s a case ag’in’ the ship. But I’m too hold a bird to git +took in like that, and I always gives ’em brand-noo rope.” + +It is strange that more sailors are not killed by falling from aloft, +for they not only appear to be, but really are, very careless, and +two or three of our men have more than once just saved themselves +from tremendous falls. Not long ago that handsome four-masted ship +“Puritan” lost two men from the upper foretop-sail-yard, only two +hundred miles from Sandy Hook, bound out to Hiogo; and it is a serious +matter to start an eighteen-thousand-mile voyage short two hands, when +ships are allowed to go to sea in these days with twenty seamen instead +of thirty. Latitude 22° 19′ south; longitude, 89° 15′ west. + + ++August 11+ + +Still no change in anything but the thermometer, the instrument at +mid-day showing 70° for the first time in many weeks. How superb, how +glorious this weather surely is! There is not too much sun to render +sitting anywhere on deck at all unpleasant, yet we have enough to give +us all the necessary observations; the soft, rich southeast Trades come +flowing smoothly over the quarter, while the ocean, the limitless South +Pacific, lies motionless to the horizon, save for the brittle, little +cat’s-paws that spangle the royal blue of this great but placid ocean. +Oh, the enjoyment of these balmy days! Oh, the unutterable charm of +the sea when for days together the ship moves serenely over its quiet +surface with nothing to interrupt the profound peace to be obtained +only in the solitude of the oceans! + + “Oh! the sea, the sea, the open sea, + The pure, the fresh, the ever free. + Without a mark, without a bound, + It runneth the earth’s wide regions round.” + +Although everything in nature is so somnolent, not so the sailors; all +day long both watches have wrought like bees unbending the heavy, new +sails and sending aloft the old fine-weather ones. The mending was +finished yesterday, and the old, brownish-gray canvas looks very dull +after the glare of the new duck and changes the whole appearance of +the ship. This is another point of usefulness in the donkey-engine, +for steam was got up this morning, and the different sails were sent +whizzing aloft like sacks of corn into a mill in a tenth of the time +that would have been necessary in manual labor. Nor be it supposed +that the sails of a two-thousand-ton ship are feather weights, for our +main-sail alone would tip the balance at eight hundred pounds. + +Last evening was the first occasion for at least two months on which we +have been able to eat our 5.15 o’clock supper without lamplight; and it +was a very grateful change to see the mellow rays of the setting sun +streaming in at the open door, instead of the weak flicker of a very +bad lantern. The cheerful air of the saloon was the cause of further +very great volubility on the part of the mate, and he told the only +humorous joke (is this tautology?) that he has uttered on the passage. +He said that his wife once asked him why it was that a captain couldn’t +keep tally of the size of his anchor so that he wouldn’t have to weigh +it every time he left a harbor. This, for Goggins, wasn’t bad. + +Some days ago we finished “Farthest North,” and so lucid and +straightforward are his writings that we seem to know Fridjof Nansen +personally. Three great characteristics stand forth pre-eminently in +this book,--manliness, lack of affectation, and the total absence of +the “I am.” Latitude, 20° 23′ south; longitude, 91° 20′ west. + + ++August 12+ + +Somewhat more cloudy to-day, and, since the morning watch, the Trades +have been a good deal stronger, though last night the wind dropped to +force 3, the average for the week having been force 4. A noticeable +fact is that even though the weather is so cool for this latitude, 70° +at noon, the Cape pigeons are still with us; I thought that they would +have left us long since, for on the other voyage we saw our last pigeon +in 30° south. One of the birds has been following us for weeks; we can +always pick him out by the fact that two of his right-wing quills are +broken, which renders him conspicuous at quite a distance. + +The ship was pumped out with the donkey last night, after the sails +were all bent, and having had no exercise for some days, the men having +pumped only at four in the morning on account of sail-making, etc., I +was constrained to take hold of the handle-bar and follow the wheel +around, which afforded even more exercise than the ordinary way. If the +men maintain constantly thirty strokes to the minute it is good work; +whereas, with the donkey whirling the pumps around at more than sixty, +the very exertion necessary to keep up with this speed is more than +considerable. It is attended, too, with some danger of bodily harm; +for if your foot should slip on the wet deck and you did not instantly +let go the handle-bar, you would either be jerked over the wheel and +slammed down on the other side, or at the next revolution the bar would +catch you under the chin and knock your lower jaw into bone-dust. The +captain conjectured later on that he, too, needed some exercise, for +he went down and worked away with ferocious abandon for perhaps five +minutes, standing forth in the bright moonlight a most ridiculous +object. For his short, plump, little body was taxed to the very utmost +to keep up with the machine, and when his coat-tails whisked wildly +about and he staggered now and then to keep his balance, and his arms +were jerked back and forth like shuttles, his coat up between his +ears, he looked like John Gilpin in a cyclone. But funniest of all was +his face. Whenever he exerts himself he always glares over at us to +ascertain whether we are laughing at him or not; and last night, as he +gazed up at us over the whizzing bar, with bursting cheeks and popping +eyes, we thought we had never seen so ludicrous a sight; even more +droll than the other day while he was “chinning” himself on the weather +mizzen-sheerpole, when he peered over his shoulder at us with so +distorted and writhing a countenance that we thought he was strangling. +The skipper has a clipping-machine, with which he has almost denuded +his head and face of their shaggy masses, and he insists that my own +thick growth of hair and beard will be uncomfortable in hot weather, +which is no doubt true; but when he offered to “run the machine over +your whiskers,” as he expressed it, I thought it best to risk them as +they are. Fancy reaping one’s beard with clippers! + +Mention has not been made of a certain dish that was placed upon the +supper-table a few nights after the last pig had been killed. In one +of the compartments of the rack was a plate of cold salt beef; while +in the other was something that we thought was mighty good, judging +from the fragrance that rose from beneath the cover. When the latter +was removed, though, there lay revealed some queer-looking, black +fragments that might have been anything rather than meat. It turned out +to be pig’s flesh right enough, but no one could guess what portions +of his anatomy they were. Some of the objects were cylindrical; these +were sections of the creature’s tongue. Others were very irregular and +unusual-looking; these were the ears; while a villanous mass that stood +aloof from the rest was recommended by the skipper as the heart. “I +think you’ll like that,” he observed, “though some do say there’s too +much muscle in it.” + +The only really unsuccessful article manufactured by the merry little +Cantonite is the pie-crust. It is very attractive and tempting to +contemplate, which makes the reality harder to bear, for it is the only +wholly indigestible article of food I ever came across; you can even +feel your teeth gliding smoothly over flakes of sticky lard scattered +freely through it. Nothing but hydrochloric acid could have the +least solvent effect upon it. Oh, yes, there is something else,--the +captain’s digestive organs. It will be recalled that when we first came +on board he mentioned that he was a dyspeptic; but goodness, gracious +me! it is a revelation to watch him denude meat or fruit pies of the +armor-plate which invests them. He has another favorite dish, too, +that he usually eats for breakfast; it looked familiar at first, and +we tried some, but instantly desisted. It was like large grains of +sand; the captain called it boiled hominy. Latitude, 18° 25′ south; +longitude, 93° 55′ west. + + ++August 13+ + +Fresh Trades, moderate sea, and dazzling skies were ours during this +day, and we made more than two degrees of latitude and only five +miles less than three of longitude. It is glorious, and everything +has assumed a tropical aspect: the sea, which undulates in swinging, +dark-blue heaves, topped with sparkling froth; and the air, which +sleepily fans one with its soft, drowsy breath. Even the men have begun +to show the influence of warmer climes, and duck and dungaree garments, +long buried in the noisome and impenetrable mysteries of a sailor’s +chest, have suddenly bloomed forth like lilies in the spring. We have +kept away a little to the westward of northwest so as to cross the line +in about 116°. + +The pumping took place last night at 7.30 as usual, and I took a hand +in it, alongside of that villain, Tim Powers (he of the wounded arm), +while opposite to us rose and fell the cadaverous countenance of Paddy. +Neither of the mates was within hearing distance, but no one spoke till +Jimmie Rumps, the little bosun, called out “Let her rest a minute,” +and then Tim grew loquacious. + +“I’m afeard this is too long a v’yage for the lady, sor; it’s a sight +o’ sea.” + +“Yes,” I answered, “but it’s not that that bothers us. We went out +to Calcutta a couple of years ago and were at sea a hundred and +twenty-seven days, so we knew it might be a hundred and fifty when we +started.” + +“Is thot so, sor,” said Tim, with immense energy and interest,--“to +Calcutta? A grand place. If yez don’t mind, what was the name o’ the +ship?” + +“The ‘Mandalore.’” + +“Oh,” with great satisfaction and relief, “an English ship. I’ll bet +yez had a different----” + +“Shake her up again, boys,” came from the main-hatch in Jimmie’s thin +little voice, and we turned to in silence till the mate’s growl, +“That’ll do the pumps,” put an end to the job. Then I asked Paddy how +he was enjoying himself. + +“To speak the truth,” he answered, wearily, “I’d rather be in me grave +than where I am, and this is the first time I ever said such a thing +aboard ship.” + +“Why, what’s the matter?” I asked him. “You’re always skylarking with +the cook and steward.” + +“Well, what’s the good in tryin’ to make a row?” he philosophically +demanded. + +“Don’t you get enough to eat?” + +“Ye-e-e-s, but it’s not what I’ve heard the mate tell you it’s like. +It’s the drivin’ we mind. But even that’s not the worst of it; you +can’t do a thing to please the mate or the old man. I dunno about Mr. +Rarx; you know I ain’t in his watch, but I guess he’s no better than +most second mates, and I guess you know what _that_ means. Work, +work, work till you split yer finger-ends and then kicked around and +thumped for a farmer. But I’m not makin’ a row,” he added, “only you +asked me.” + +Paddy, it must be said, is one of a rare species, a fair-minded sailor, +which I discovered some time ago by his taking the mate’s part when +telling me of some trifling incident that happened on board. + +A couple of hours later, it being the second mate’s watch, I asked him +to tell me honestly why he liked American ships better than others, +knowing that he has sailed in English vessels. + +“Well, the principal thing is the pay,” he replied. “It’s a good +deal better in our ships than in foreigners; and the cabin table’s +generally better, too. Now, there’s the British ship ‘Fulwood’ (a +fine steel ship she is), I know they don’t have soft bread on the +table but once a week.” It seemed to me that this would be quite a +recommendation for the “Fulwood,” for we have yet to see soft bread +aboard ship much better than a worn-out sponge. But as for the wages, +he is certainly right. Take the wages out of Hamburg as an example. +The chief officers of the largest and fastest express steamers receive +an amount equivalent to only sixty dollars of our money! What sort of +remuneration is that for a man of ability, in many cases a university +graduate, a man second in authority aboard a ten-thousand-ton mail +steamer rippling through the most crowded ocean in the world at +twenty-one knots, with fifteen hundred souls below-decks? And it makes +one positively angry to think of a human being like Goggins, a densely +ignorant and practically worthless creature, a person who can’t work +a traverse and get the same answer twice, receiving the same amount +as mate of a wind-jammer! Why, our steward, a Malay and a man of low +intellect, has a good deal more than half as much wages as the first +officer of the “Normannia” or “Augusta Victoria”! It is positively +incredible. Latitude, 16° 14′ south; longitude, 96° 30′ west. + + ++August 14+ + +Another day, beautiful beyond expression. We never remember one in all +our sea experience that was as fine. The sun poured down from a sky +without a shred of cloud, and the Trades, still as fresh as ever, came +singing so sweetly and cheerfully over the starboard quarter, that you +were moved to lean back in your chair and think, “Who is so happy as I?” + +Even if the weather were not so delightful, our fine progress would +cover a multitude of grievances, for we have done five hundred and +eighty-six miles in three days, a continuous average of eight knots. If +credible, the nights are even finer than the days, and we sat late on +deck last evening plunking away on the banjo, with everything steeped +in the white light of the moon just past the full. So wonderfully +brilliant were her beams that the shadows of the weather mizzen-rigging +cast upon the immense concave expanse of the main-sail stood forth as +from an arc-light. The serenity of such a night is almost unearthly. + +The first step in the rehabilitation of the ship for port has been +progressing for two days,--the tarring down of the standing rigging. It +is always the dirtiest job aboard ship, and the men are plastered from +crown to toe with the sticky fluid. Next after this comes the painting, +then the holy-stoning, and lastly the varnishing of what little bright +work there is on the poop. + +[Illustration: Tarring down] + +When at the pumps last evening I learned that the men had been deeply +impressed with my having assisted the donkey the other night. Murphy +especially seemed to extract much amusement from the fact, and when I +told him that some exercise was necessary to health, he said that he +never allowed that subject to bother him, adding, “There’s one thing +I’m just grand at,--lyin’ in me bunk.” His appearance substantiates +this statement, for he is as round and rugged as he was three months +ago; I truly believe that he is the only man forward who doesn’t bear +the marks of either Cape Horn or a belaying-pin. On the other hand, +Louis the Gaul is the saddest and most dejected-looking man I ever saw. +He has at all times that melancholy, dispirited look that one sees in +the eyes of a captive ourang-outang. We talked together last night, and +he informed me that this was his first American ship, and, please God, +it would be his last. In very broken English, and in the deferential +tones of a foreigner, he asked, “Sair, do your laws allow men to be +treated as ze men are treated aboard zees sheep?” + +“No,” I answered; “but so far there does not seem to have been any +attempt made by the United States authorities to enforce the laws they +have made.” Jacquin didn’t know enough English to go more deeply into +the subject, and the talk drifted to the French navy, in which he has +served sixteen years altogether; and when I told him that I knew the +“Jean Bart” very well, his delight was child-like. Then he imparted +a bit of rather astonishing news by saying that a man who has served +for twenty years in the French navy (and it need not be all in one +stretch) is pensioned by the government at three francs and a half per +day. Besides possessing the second most powerful navy, France has some +rattling fine square-riggers, such as the “La France,” the largest +sailing vessel in the world bar the “Potosi,” the “Dunquerque,” and the +“Quevilly,” the greatest tank sailing ship afloat, carrying one million +gallons of oil in bulk between Philadelphia and Rouen. + +Our pigeons have left us, and well they might, considering the +latitude. What a distance they followed us! From 30° south in one +ocean to 16° south in the other, and from the forty-fifth to the one +hundredth meridian. Quite a stretch of salt-water that. Mother Carey’s +chickens have come as a sort of compensation, hovering over our wake +and darting down between the waves like swallows whizzing through the +air after insects. Latitude, 14° 5′ south; longitude, 99° west. + + ++August 15+ + +Shall it be written that this day is the finest of all? It is even +so, and I pray the reader to bear with me, and to remember that if +he were in my place he would no doubt give expression to the same +thought. If the entire voyage, except that part lying in the Pacific +between the southern tropic and the equator, were composed of gales +and snow-storms, it seems as though these winds would atone for any +amount of previous distress and inconvenience. It seems wonderful that +the atmosphere can possess simultaneously such exhilaration and such a +smooth, luscious balminess. Oh, superb, glorious southeast Trades, thy +equal is not in the world! + + +THE TRADE-WIND’S SONG. + + Oh, I am the wind that the seamen love, + I am steady and strong and true; + They follow my track by the clouds above + O’er the fathomless, tropic blue. + + For close by the shores of the sunny Azores + Their ships I await to convoy; + When into their sails my constant breath pours, + They hail me with turbulent joy. + + I bring them a rest from tiresome toil, + Of trimming the sail to the blast; + For I love to keep gear all snug in the coil, + And the sheets and the braces all fast. + + From the deck to the truck I pour all my force, + In spanker and jib I am strong; + For I make every course to pull like a horse. + And worry the great ship along. + + As I fly o’er the blue I sing to the crew + Who answer me back with a hail; + I whistle a note as I slip by the throat + Of the buoyant and bellying sail. + + I laugh when the wave leaps over the head, + And the jibs through the spray-bow shine; + For an acre of foam is broken and spread + When she shoulders and tosses the brine. + + Through daylight and dark I follow the bark, + I keep like a hound on her trail; + I’m strongest at noon, yet under the moon + I stiffen the bunt of her sail. + + The wide ocean through for days I pursue, + Till slowly my forces all wane; + Then in whispers of calm I bid them adieu, + And vanish in thunder and rain. + + Oh, I am the wind that the seamen love, + I am steady and strong and true; + They follow my track by the clouds above + O’er the fathomless, tropic blue. + +Thus has Thomas Fleming Day delightfully written of the flowing Trades. + +The men are busily engaged shearing away the great mops of hair that +protected their heads in cold weather. Coleman (a man with a baneful +eye and one who ought to be watched) seems to be the most accomplished +tonsorial artist in the ship; he has already operated on half a dozen +men, and all hands but one have assumed that appearance of cleanliness +usual among sailors in the tropics. The exception is Tim, who, bar Mr. +Goggins, is the dirtiest man on board. And now for a secret, profound +and extraordinary! Let the peruser of these pages prepare himself +for the concussion; let him brace himself for the impending blow! Mr. +Goggins was seen to go forward to the galley an hour ago and return +with a basin of water! Can it be possible that he is about to submit +his face and hands to the purification of a quart, a whole quart of +fresh water? But no; this could not be. Let us banish the thought. He +would perish of shock. Yet it must be for this that he fetched the +water, for it is the only conceivable use to which he could put it, +so we live in hopes of a change at supper. We have never anywhere +come in contact with a person so irreclaimably obnoxious, and we can +only wonder why the captain allows him to come to the table in such a +condition. If a man wants to be dirty, it’s his own personal affair; +but when he becomes objectionable to others, steps ought to be taken to +remedy the evil. + +By far the most agreeable persons on board are the steward and +cook, not to mention David MacFoy, who is so much more pleasant and +entertaining than the rest that he forms a class all by himself. The +cook, though, is a jolly little man, and welcomed us with much homely +attention when we invaded his precinct the other day to learn how to +make curry properly. To start with, it is hard to get good curry-powder +even in India, and that which we brought back with us from Calcutta in +glass jars is not as good as that which can be bought in San Francisco +in square tins, that city being the only place in the United States +where this particular sort can be obtained. But besides the necessity +for good powder, there are certain proportions of chopped onion, flour, +butter, etc., to be added in its preparation, so that in order to learn +how to make curry properly it is necessary to witness the process as +performed by an Indian or a Chinaman. + +A rather interesting little fact to us to-day is that this is the +first occasion on which three figures have ever been necessary to +express our longitude. Latitude, 12° 5’ south; longitude, 101° 40′ west. + + ++August 16+ + +Fear not. I do not intend to say how much more beautiful to-day is than +yesterday, though I should like to, and it is hard to refrain from +doing so in such weather; but more than enough has been said on this +subject. As a matter of fact, it is not quite so fine to-day, for the +wind is dead aft, so that the after-sails are the only ones that do +much good, and our run has not been quite up to the usual standard. + +This has been a grand cleaning day forward. Every movable object was +taken out of the forward house and spread on the forecastle-head in +the baking sun, and a curious sight did the men’s old clothes and +bedding present after lying mildewed and sodden for so many weeks. +They lay in a wretched heap, the outside of which was composed of +ancient, grimy bedticks, frowsy, ill-looking quilts, and disreputable, +mouldy mufflers. The forecastle itself was then swept cleanly out and +thoroughly washed with soap and water. + +We have scores of snow-white birds with us now, about the size of +common gulls, called bosuns. They are pretty creatures, with the most +remarkable tails; for, instead of the usual fan-shaped arrangement +of feathers, their bodies seem to be elongated into pointed spines, +so thin and sharp that it is almost impossible to see the extreme +end. These birds are very noisy and keep up a harsh croaking, whence +their name, as a bosun is supposed to live in a continual state of +exhortation. On coming up from supper last night just before six, we +saw a plump, little feathered creature bearing down upon us, which +had a very familiar appearance; and great was our surprise a moment +later when we found that it was a Cape pigeon! Imagine one within six +hundred miles of the equator! He must have been the last survivor of +some vessel ahead of us, and, having abandoned her, concluded to stop +and see if he couldn’t find some scraps here. He looked very calm +sailing about on motionless wing among the flocks of bosuns and Mother +Carey’s chickens that appear, in comparison, to make so great an effort +at flying. This morning, though, we found that this, the last token of +Cape Horn, had vanished. Mr. Rarx, however, didn’t seem much surprised +at the appearance of the pigeon, and told us that he had seen them +often in the harbor of Callao in 12° south. + +In a maritime paper that the second mate showed us to-day there +was rather an interesting article concerning the naming of ships. +According to it, French merchant-vessels are usually called after +provinces, towns, wines, and victories, but never after men, except +the greatest men of French history. British ships are generally named +after mythological characters, lakes, bays, glens, and cities; German +vessels after rivers, ports, poets, states, and characters in German +literature. The Italians name theirs after characters in Italian +literature, and names of hope, courage, enterprise, and religion. +Spanish ships are almost always called after cities or the great +commanders in Spanish history. Norwegians and Swedes take the names of +localities dear to them; while American ships are given the names of +their owners, relatives, friends, or “any old thing.” + +The same paper contained a short dissertation on scurvy. I wonder +how many people there are who know that, according to the latest +researches, scurvy is not a disease produced by eating salt meat? For +many years Professor Torup, of the University of Christiania, has been +studying this dreaded malady, scurvy, in all its forms, and about +five years ago he proved to his own satisfaction that it is produced +by ptomaine poisoning incident to putrefaction in meats which had not +been properly cured or preserved. Fridjof Nansen believed in this +theory, and when he was fitting out the “Fram” for her Arctic voyage +he took the most extraordinary precautions to have every can or barrel +of preserved meat that went on board in the best possible condition, +particularly the salt meats. The sequel to this care was that upon his +return every man on board was in perfect health, and had been during +the three years’ voyage; this has been considered sufficient proof +that it is poison in the meat, and not the salted meat itself, which +produces that most ghastly of all diseases. Latitude, 10° 8′ south; +longitude, 103° 56′ west. + + ++August 17+ + +Still the same weather conditions, with a little more wind and, strange +to tell, a heavy ground-swell from the southwest. Imagine how hard +the gale must have been to drive the swell through thirty degrees of +latitude, as it is not probable that a wind strong enough to raise such +a sea would prevail north of 40° south. Soon, indeed, now we will enter +upon the last quarter of our voyage, and that portion of the Pacific +between the line and 40° north is at this season often responsible for +more long passages than any other part of the Cape Horn voyage. Many +a flyer has rolled booming across the equator on a record-breaking +trip, struck the Doldrums north of the line like running into a stone +wall, and added fifty days more to the passage before sighting the +Farallones. Just a year ago the “Shenandoah,” one of our fastest +vessels, was forty-six days sailing up to ’Frisco from the equator. + +Last night in the first watch I had a long talk with the second mate. +It seems that he and Mr. Goggins have had words several times lately, +and as Mr. Rarx knows what we think of the mate, he unburdened his mind +in a very unusual manner. He says that Goggins would make a tip-top +mate of a garbage-dumper, but that he isn’t fit for a geordie brig, +much less a clipper ship, or what passes for a clipper in these days. +“But the worst of it is, he’s no seaman; and when my watch on deck +comes ain’t there a h---- of a fine mess, and I’ve got to do it all +over again. And look at his men, the state he’s got ’em into; there’s +not a man-jack o’ the whole lot that’ll turn a finger for him, with his +shoutin’ and hollerin’ and swearin’. I wonder the captain shipped such +a ---- ---- old cripple, for he knew him before. I’m gettin’ bloody +sick o’ the voyage. What’s the matter with the mate is that he came in +through the cabin-windows instead o’ the hawse-pipes.” + +All this and much more did Mr. Rarx pour forth, working himself into +quite a rage as he went along, and embellishing his discourse with +regular handspike oaths. + +In the American merchant service a mate always rises to that position +through the various grades from ordinary seaman up; but on British +ships boys (frequently gentlemen’s sons) sign for three years as +apprentices, live aft, and are taught navigation and seamanship +perfectly and practically by captains who are often privileged to write +R. N. R. after their names, paying, I think, about one hundred guineas +for this instruction. When this course is over they are fit for second +mate, and in another two years pass for mate and then master. How +different in America, where the law requires no examination for a man +before he goes in command of a sailing vessel! How Mr. Goggins could +rise to be mate from a cabin-boy without passing through the forecastle +is quite marvellous, as he has always sailed in Yankee ships. He is a +very obscure individual, though, and no doubt landed in the cabin in +some inscrutable manner. + +Mr. Rarx, on the other hand, would make a good mate of a large yacht +were it not for his temper, which is very violent, and he has a way of +harboring up revenge for petty trifles. We have seen more bad treatment +of the men at the hands of Goggins; but my belief is that the second +mate does considerable hammering on his own account the other side of +the forecastle-house. It is a curious fact that so many bright men +stick at second mate all their lives, never rising any higher, simply +because they have never learned the use of a sextant, or how to copy +figures from an epitome, for that’s all that navigation amounts to as +carried on at sea. This is the great dividing line between first and +second mate, which a man like Rarx could overcome in a few weeks of +application. When a second mate has passed his thirty-fifth year his +pristine ardor and zeal begin to wane, for by that time his aspirations +for improvement are not so keen as they were; and if he is not a mate +shortly afterward, he never will be. Similarly, when a mate has passed +that age and never has had a command, he settles down in the capacity +of chief officer, and by the time he is forty he performs his duties +thereafter with no more ambition than the ox that hauls the plough. +Many ship-masters refuse to take either a mate or a second mate who is +more than thirty-five years old. Reference is made to sailing craft +only, as men in the transatlantic mail service not infrequently reach +fifty years before succeeding to one of the greyhounds. In the early +days of Yankee clippers scores of men went out as master at twenty-one, +and capable ones at that, as the records show. + +Whenever there is a pause in the conversation at meals now, Captain +Scruggs always fills in with some remarks about Nansen (or Naysen, as +he always calls him) and Arctic expeditions. It is remarkable with +what regularity he does this, and the mate as regularly asks in a +grieved tone, addressing no one in particular, “And will yer tell +me wot good hit’s a-goin’ to do when they do find the pole?” Then +the skipper indignantly asks him if he supposes that an expedition +is idle all the time in the ice; to which the mate replies, “Well, I +know there’s nothin’ to be found out about the land up there, cause +there hain’t none.” And then they go at it like a pair of quarrelsome +cats, till suddenly the old man fetches the table a whack and cries +out, “Very well, sir; you’re not here to argue; that’ll do, sir,” in +his fiercest tones. At such times he looks like the ogre of childhood. +These set-tos are extremely amusing, though, for neither knows anything +about the subject, and the air throbs with “magnetic poles,” “Arctic +circles,” and “phemomemoms.” By the way, it is interesting to know that +England held the record for the highest latitude for two hundred and +seventy-five years, or since Hudson’s voyage in 1607 to 1882, when the +record passed to the United States, to be wrested from her thirteen +or fourteen years later by the Norwegians. Let us hope that Peary, +whom Sir Clements Markham calls “the greatest living ice-traveller,” +will regain what we have lost, and this time succeed in attaining that +geographical point, the quest of which has resulted in the loss of such +splendid men as Franklin and de Long. + +Almost all of the painting aloft has been finished except the lower +masts. The topmast and lower mast-heads all glitter in the glory of a +coat of dark reddish-brown, and the rigging fairly scintillates in the +sun in its dress of glossy tar. Mr. Goggins says that he well remembers +the first wire-rigged sailing vessel seen in the United States. She was +a full-rigged London brig, and when she arrived in New York she looked +so neat and trim aloft that even the old shell-backs, who doubted the +efficacy of wire, were obliged to admit that in appearance, anyhow, she +was away ahead of the old style. “But you wait till she strikes a gale +o’ wind,” said these Solons, “and then you’ll see.” And they didn’t +have long to wait, for on her return voyage to England she was totally +dismasted three hundred miles west of Cape Clear. Latitude, 8° 19′ +south; longitude, 105° 40′ west. + + ++August 18+ + +A still fresher breeze to-day, but it is dead aft. But we are moving +so steadily in the same direction, northwest, that we slip through the +water without appreciating how fast we are going; and as each noon puts +us two degrees farther north, we ought to cross the line next Saturday. +Gradually, too, we have been gliding into warmer weather, and last +night we experienced, for the first time in the Pacific, the tremendous +heat of the equatorial regions. There is something inexpressibly +depressing to many people after a few days’ sojourn in the tropics; +something that seems to drain the vitality. Personally I have never +experienced this feeling, and exercise should never be omitted in hot +weather by robust persons, although it should not be severe, and ought +never be taken when the sun is more than ten degrees above the horizon. + +This morning as we were hanging over the side in the shade, watching +the copper slipping smoothly through the water, while a perfect +cataract of cool wind poured over us out of the lee side of the +cross-jack, we saw a disk of vivid green resting upon the surface of +the clear, blue depths. We thought it was a cluster of sea-grass till +the captain said, “Hello, there’s our first turtle.” So it proved to +be, and as the ship passed within a few feet of him we had an excellent +view of his broad, corrugated back, fully three feet across; he was +reposing in peaceful slumber as we slid past, with head retracted, but +feet and tail extended like a starfish, and he looked immeasurably +comfortable, resting so placidly on the water, indolently rising and +falling in the quiet sea; and we envied him, lying there in his clear, +cool element. Latitude, 6° 38′ south; longitude, 107° 44′ west. + + ++August 19+ + +One hundred days at sea, and we celebrated the circumstance in real +old-fashioned, long-approved Yankee style. Last evening, immediately +after supper, we went up on the cabin-house and sat down to enjoy the +sunset. All at once we heard angry voices forward, and then Louis, the +Frenchman, shot head first out of the lee door of the carpenter-shop, +followed by the massive body of Chips himself, who held in his hand +a bludgeon. They were both in a passion. Louis dropped his hat as he +flew through the doorway, and as he stooped to pick it up, smack! came +the truncheon upon his flank. Then Louis straightened up, shot out +his fist, and smote Chips painfully on the chin; the latter returned +the blow, and in a second they were at it tooth and nail. Now, Louis +is a very active, powerful man, and in a long spell he would, no +doubt, wear the other out, but in close quarters he was no match for +the carpenter’s weight; for a few seconds Louis prevailed, but Chips +recovered, and, being a foot taller than the Gaul, he seized him by the +throat and backed him over towards the rail, against which he caused +Louis’s head to come into such frequent and violent contact that we +could hear the tattoo where we sat. Then Louis began his national, low +habit of kicking, but was unsuccessful in his contemptible trick, and +they were still in the throes of battle when the mate appeared and +cautiously hauled them apart. The shirts of both were in shreds and the +Frenchman was in a fearful rage. By and by Chips came aft to supper; he +bore no facial marks of the encounter save that he was very pale. + +At seven o’clock I went up to one of the men, Charlie, and asked him +what the row was about. He said that, as far as he knew, Louis went +into the carpenter-shop to get some kerosene to cleanse the paint from +his hands, and, having no business in there without permission, Chips +had thrown him out. The carpenter, by the way, hasn’t been fair to +the men lately with their water. One day off Cape Horn, when he went +into the forecastle with the men’s allowance, one of them said to him, +thereby exhibiting an unusually good spirit, “Say, Chips, there’s no +good o’ givin’ us all that water in cold weather, we can’t drink it.” +Then when the hot weather came and the men grew thirsty, Chips refused +to give them more than they asked for off the Horn, though each man is +entitled here to four quarts per day. + +Well, then, we continued to sit where we were till after dark, +discussing the event; presently eight bells went, MacFoy came aft with, +“The watch is aft, sir,” to which the mate replied with the usual +growl, “All right; relieve the wheel and lookout,” and the starboard +watch came on deck. At about 8.15, in the midst of that deep, wonderful +silence that pervades a sailing ship at night, we were startled by loud +voices up near the main-mast, just where we couldn’t tell, as it was +pitch dark; immediately afterward, however, we recognized the voices of +Mr. Rarx and Louis, which quickly rose to shouting. The first sentence +that we caught was from the second mate, the words coming in jerks, as +though he had a man by the neck and was shaking him: “So you were in +there tryin’ to steal oil eh? You ---- ---- French ---- ---- ----.” To +which Louis answered in a loud voice, “I deed _not_, sair.” Then +came another broadside from Rarx, and again, “Etees _not_ so, +sair.” + +At this point several voices broke in, and the old man then ran down +the weather poop-ladder to see what was the matter. Suddenly a +death-like silence reigned for a few moments; then came a sound of +scuffling, and all at once Rarx cried out, “God! He’s stuck me, cap’n!” + +“What’s that?” yelled the skipper. + +“The damned French hound’s put a knife into me, sir!” + +Paralysis instantly fell upon all hands. The tension was fearful, but +was relieved somewhat by the steward’s opening the port cabin door, +allowing a broad path of light to stream forth into the darkness, +which had hitherto rendered the affair mysterious and horrible. It +fell upon a group of startled men by the main-mast, with the skipper +in the centre supporting the second mate, while the latter, pressing +his hands above his left hip, shuffled painfully aft. He was led into +the cabin, where he sat down upon the coal-box, and I pulled up his +shirt and exposed the wound. It was a wide gash in his side, a little +to the front of and just above the pelvis. The blow had evidently been +aimed at the groin, but in the darkness Louis had slightly missed. +Rarx’s clothes were somewhat blood-soaked, but the flow had ceased, +showing that probably none of the large arteries had been punctured. +Still, there was more than a probability that he had been dangerously, +nay, fatally, hurt, and even at that moment might be bleeding to death +internally, and we could not tell whether or no any of the vital organs +had been touched. The skipper ran at once for listerine, and together +we contrived to bind up the wound and put the man to bed. Then the old +man stepped out on the main-deck and shouted,-- + +“Send that Frenchman aft, Mr. Goggins, and put the irons on him.” + +The mate went gingerly up to Louis, who, in the midst of a knot of men, +was raving like a maniac, and, seizing him gently by the arm, led him +aft. Oh, how that man raged and blasphemed! He was like an angry bull, +and his loud voice rang out far over the peaceful ocean and echoed and +reverberated high up overhead in the hollows of the upper sails. + +“Did you hear what ’ee call me, sair?” in shrill tones. “I, who have +bose fazair and mozair. _I weel not stand zat, sair._ I die +fairst; you can keel me, sair. And I, I stuck ’eem; I would cut ’eem +again, sair, or any one else, that call me zat name. +I am a man, +sair.+” This last in a perfect shriek. + +Never a word said the old man. Then Louis turned on him, and, +insolently sneering, his head thrown back scornfully and one foot +advanced, he cried,-- + +“And you, Capitaine Scruggs! What are you? I have been to sea twenty +year and nevair saw a capitaine like you before. You starve us! you +starve us! Why do you starve us? When we fairst left New York we ’ad +plentee to eat, zee food was waste, and now for seex wicks we have +had nossing at all. Bah! Peef! _You_, a man like _you_, a +capitaine!” + +At this juncture the skipper said abruptly, but without the least show +of anger, for which great credit is due him,-- + +“Where’s the knife you cut the second mate with?” + +“Where zee knife, eh? Here zee knife. Now you see it, now you don’t. +Ha, ha!” And he jerked it over the side into the sea. + +All this time the mate was fussing with the irons, trying to find a +pair that would encircle his great wrists; but at length a pair was +found, locked on his arms, and he was led aft to the wheel-house, +several other pairs of irons in the mate’s hand clanking mournfully as +he walked. Into the after-division where the tiller works Louis was +hustled, and his hands were then fastened with a rope to a ring-bolt in +a carlin overhead, so that he had to stand upright all night. + +And what was my wife doing all this time? When Rarx had cried that he +had been stabbed she had fled to her room, locking herself in, and sat +shivering until curiosity compelled her to open the door on a crack and +peep out; and when Louis and the mate stumbled along the alley-way by +our windows, it sounded to her like the tramp of a ball-and-chain gang. + +As soon as Louis was secured we turned our attention to the second mate +again, and after reaching the conclusion that there was no internal +hemorrhage, or, at least, none that our slight skill could detect, we +drew the edges of the wound together, into which you might easily have +thrust a plum, securing them with adhesive plaster, and then bound up +the cut with listerine-soaked cloths. Poor fellow! he had a bad night. +Two heavy doses of laudanum and a five-grain opium pill had no more +effect on him than so much nitre; and it was not until shortly before +eight this morning that he dozed away, only to be aroused by the clang +of the huge breakfast-bell just without his door. He is suffering +dreadfully, has a high fever, and has conceived the notion that he is +in slivers inside. + +At 8.15 this morning the after wheel-house door was opened, and the +captain asked Louis if there was anything that he wanted, to which the +Frenchman answered by turning his back with a shrug. Then the skipper +said to him, “I just came to tell you that you’re no longer a seaman +aboard this ship. You’re a prisoner, and will remain so till I hand you +over to the authorities in San Francisco.” Then breakfast, consisting +of burgoo, hard bread, salt beef, and coffee, was taken to him, and he +was left alone till one o’clock, when a pannikin of soup was carried to +him, which he refused, although he ate another piece of salt beef and +a huge piece of soft bread. The manacles are knocked off when he eats, +after which they are locked on again, and he is then left utterly +alone. He is not allowed to enter the forecastle upon any pretext, +and when it is necessary for him to go forward, the mate follows +immediately behind. + +At a little before nine this morning, as I was reading by the +wheel-house, Paddy, who was steering, leaned out and whispered, “Look, +the old man’s goin’ to read the riot act.” I glanced forward, and saw +that the ship’s company had been mustered aft on the main-deck, with +the captain glaring at them, but not in the least excited. I reached +the break of the poop just in time to hear what it was about. Said the +skipper: “I hear you men are finding fault with the food and say I’m +starving you; is that so?” + +Tim, with a villanous twist, came forward, and said, “It is, sor; and +we don’t get enough wather to wash our hands wid,” holding out two +dirty paws. + +“Not enough to wash your hands with, eh?” said the old man. “It looks +to me as if there was plenty of water over the side, and I believe +you’ve got enough salt-water soap. Is that all you’ve got to say?” + +“It is, sor,” said Tim. + +“Is there any one else in the same fix?” asked the skipper. + +Coleman then stepped out and said the same thing about the food and +water. Every one else seemed to find something mighty interesting in +the deck-seams. + +“All right. Mr. Goggins, you will see that the men are put on +government allowance from now till I see fit to stop it. You can go +forrad,” he added to the men. + +It must be explained that on Yankee ships it is not customary to put +men on the allowance prescribed by law as it is on foreign ships. On +some of our ships the men are fed very well and on others miserably. +We began here by giving all sorts of extra things to the men, +apple-sauce, cheap jam, butter, etc., and when these “delicacies” ran +out the men thought it strange, and then by and by, according to some +of the most trustworthy of the sailors, the bread and meat themselves +began to grow less and less. It would be much better if long-voyage +American ships would adhere to the government allowance, and not give +the men sweets one month and then suddenly stop them entirely; such a +course always breeds discontent; and I have noticed that the mates have +not been able to get any more work out of the men here even when they +were luxuriating in their jam and butter, etc., than they did on the +English “Mandalore,” where everything was weighed out to the ounce, and +no “fixins.” + +The serenity that ought to accompany a sea-voyage has been savagely +dissipated, for go on deck and approach the wheel-house, and you +instinctively recoil when you think that it perhaps contains a +murderer. Go below to meals, and the smile vanishes from your face as +your thoughts revert to the wounded man groaning in his dingy cavern. +Over the ship hovers a silence such as falls upon a community when +Death stalks through its midst. The men look grave, the mate gives his +orders in low tones, and instead of the ringing chanties, the halliards +are tautened up to a muffled “oh ho”; and the pumps would revolve in +utter silence but for their own grinding clank. + +As for the day, it was magnificent, and we continue to surge along over +a sparkling ocean. Latitude, 4° 30′ south; longitude, 109° 58′ west. + + ++August 20+ + +After the excitement and turmoil incident to such an affair as happened +yesterday, or rather the night before last, it is hard to get at the +real facts of the case until the agitation calms down. Therefore it +was not until a little while ago that we learned the truth about the +row between Louis and Chips. It appears that before stowing away the +heavy suit of sails when they had been unbent, some slight repairs were +necessary on the lower foretop-sail. They were completed day before +yesterday, and the sail was carefully rolled and tied up. The men were +ordered to rinse the paint off their hands with kerosene, furnished +them by the carpenter, so that they should leave no finger-marks on +the white duck. Afterward, for some unknown reason, Louis wanted more +oil, and personally went into the carpenter-shop to get it. Now, it is +one of the strictest rules aboard all ships that no sailor shall ever +enter the carpenter-shop in the absence of Chips; and when the latter, +no doubt in an ugly mood, found Louis in there, he threw him out. +After the fight the Frenchman was in a blind passion, and there were +probably two reasons for his taking summary vengeance upon the second +mate. In the first place, I have often seen him flush up with anger +at the way in which some of the men have been treated, this being his +first American ship; and he probably determined that if either mate +laid hand on him unlawfully, he would show them that there was at least +one man forward with the courage to defend himself. The second mate +took him by the throat (Rarx admits that) while he, Louis, was quietly +standing by the chicken-coop cutting off a plug of tobacco, being at +the time perfectly well behaved, and the Frenchman, remembering his +comrades, used his knife, ready in his hand. In the second place, the +name which the second mate called him was the last straw. English, +German, Scandinavian, and American sailors do not seem to care what +they are called by the mates; but any one of the violent Latin races +always resents this epithet with all the fury of which they are +possessed. It is inconceivable, anyhow, why Rarx should have stirred +up the row again. Chips ejected Louis from his shop. All right; he +is there to guard that part of the ship, and did right in heaving him +out of it; yet the second mate must needs rake it all up again two +hours afterward, when he didn’t even see the original disturbance. +Gradually I am beginning to lean toward the belief that Rarx and Louis +have had a grudge against each other for a long time, and mayhap that +little incident in the South Atlantic while the sails were being +shifted, during which Rarx nearly threw the Frenchman off one of the +mizzen-top-sail-yards, was not so much of an accident as it seemed. + +By far the gravest question now is, was the knife that did the deed +rusty? It was a sheath-knife such as all sailors carry in a little +leathern scabbard by the hip. It must have been fairly bright, though, +as there has been a great deal of use lately for sheath-knives in +cutting away old chafing gear, and therein lies Rarx’s salvation. His +sufferings are very great now; at long intervals he is somewhat easier, +but he groans almost continuously in what seems to be excruciating +agony, his breath comes in gasps, and perspiration oozes from his face +in large beads, as he wallows and squirms in his narrow, hot bunk, +almost crying aloud sometimes when the ship rolls. + +And what of Louis? He has been removed to the lazarette and fastened, +still handcuffed, to a thick stanchion. There he sits brooding +in the gloom, for no light penetrates the apartment save by the +booby-hatch that leads into it, secured with a chain heavy enough for +a maintop-sail-sheet. He has, however, plenty of air and good food, +including soft bread, which is no longer given to the men; but there is +not space enough for him to stand upright in, a kneeling posture being +the most elevated that he can assume. Still, there’s nothing else to do +with him, for he certainly couldn’t be allowed at large. Three times a +day the mate carries him his food, liberates him when he has finished +and marches him forward, walking about five feet behind him, his hand +gripping a pistol in his hip-pocket, ready for the least false move on +the part of the Frenchman or any one else. The latter’s face is a study +as he walks rapidly forward, his heavy, dark brows hanging sulkily over +flashing eyes which he never raises from the deck. Through the midst of +his shipmates he strides silently with bare feet, his immovable face +shrouded in deep scowls, looking neither to the right nor left. They +make way for him with averted heads as he passes through, followed +by his jailer, and the men close up again as after the passage of a +blood-hound in leash. Then in a moment back again he hurries along the +deck, mounts the poop-ladder, descends into the dusky recess, holds +out his hands, the irons are snapped on, with the chains between, and +he is left for another five or six hours to muse in solitude upon his +bloody deed. His face shows as yet no indication of relenting; but as +day after day drags on in all its awful loneliness even his nature, +however dauntless, must at last succumb to that most terrible of all +punishments, solitary confinement. + +As for the rest of the men, they have recovered somewhat and go about +their work much as usual, bar the chanties, and I had lately another +chance for a word with honest Paddy. “What do you think of this +affair?” I asked him. “Well, I can’t say I’m surprised,” he answered. +“How is that?” wishing to sound him. “Mr. Rarx has always seemed a +pretty decent fellow.” “Decent fellow!” he replied. “Say, look here, +I didn’t say much about him to you the other day, but I’ll tell you +what now, there’s not a single man in the fo’c’s’l what’ll say a good +word for him, ’ceptin’ that he’s a fine sailor-man. His temper’s hell,” +he went on, and I expected to hear of some more fine examples of +discipline, for we were on the fore-castle-head and not likely to be +seen, when “Come, come, Paddy, this ain’t the dog-watch,” broke sharply +in, and we perceived the stalwart shoulders of the bosun rise above the +ladder, which, of course, ended the conversation. + +My wife is rapidly recovering from her nervousness, having in this +respect exhibited almost miraculous recuperative powers. What a trying, +not to say a terrible, position for a woman to be placed in! What a +miserable termination to a voyage undertaken solely for pleasure! +Indeed, though, while we have enjoyed the sea as much, perhaps more, +than we ever did before, there have been so many adverse conditions +on board with which we have had to contend, that, after all, this is +a more or less appropriate termination to the passage. When Louis was +first put into the lazarette my wife didn’t like it at all, as our room +adjoins it, though separated by a stout partition or bulkhead; we have +allayed her fears, though, and we never hear so much as the clink of +the chain from the Frenchman, even at night. It is fortunate that our +relatives have no suspicion of our position. + +We are now permanently three hands short, for old Neilsen is still +so seedy that his most arduous tasks are making sennit and mats and +pointing and putting Turk’s-heads on ropes. At noon we found that a +strong southwesterly current had retarded us, and we are not as far +north by half a degree as we supposed. Precisely the same weather +conditions prevail, this great ocean being still in a state of absolute +rest. The wind is now east; an advantage, as it allows every sail to +draw. Latitude, 2° 49′ south; longitude, 112° 30′ west. + + ++August 21+ + +Mr. Rarx is somewhat improved, we think, and this afternoon he is not +in so much pain. When I went in to see him yesterday I was shocked at +his appearance. His face was swollen and puffed and glistening with +perspiration; he twitched suddenly in jerks and was so exhausted that +a dozen consecutive words wore him completely out. The worst of all, +however, was his rambling speech, due to five-grain doses of opium; +these seem to me to be prodigious amounts to administer, and perhaps +account for the excessive cardiac palpitation from which he suffers. +During breakfast this morning he had a dreadful spasm of pain, and we +could hear him crying, “Oh, oh, oh, oh!” and it was miserable to see +this powerful man stricken down at one blow. + +Louis still conducts himself with the grim indifference of a Sioux +Indian; his chains have been double-riveted and shackled, and an idea +of the massiveness of the gear may be obtained when it is said that the +stanchion to which he is secured is five inches square and only four +feet high, that being the amount of head-room in the lazarette. The +skipper has to stand the second mate’s watches now, which is hard on +him, as he is suffering acutely from rheumatism. Lately, or since we +took the southeast Trades, he has been most astonishingly affable. We +don’t know what to think of him; his argumentativeness has disappeared +and he insists on conversing pleasantly at meals; in short, he has +assumed a gracious benignity as surprising as it is welcome, and it +proves that he knows quite well how to talk and act, and that his surly +manner is simply the result of a morose temper. I expect that he wants +to leave a good impression on our minds at the end of the voyage. + +Our southwesterly current gave rise to a most astounding lie from the +mate, to illustrate what he believes to be the erratic movements of the +currents in the North Pacific. The incident happened on a bark in the +San Francisco-Honolulu trade, of which he was mate at the time. This +vessel carried no freight, but did a large passenger trade, and always +carried cows along for fresh milk. “Well, sir, wot I’m a-tellin’ yer of +’appened onct on the houtward passage; one of our cows took sick and +died, and of course we ’ad to ’eave ’er over the side, which we did in +the northeast Trades. We reached ’Onolulu all right, and started back +ag’in for San Francisco, when one mornin’ in the Trades the cap’n he +says to me, ‘Mr. Goggins,’ says he, ‘wot’s that?’ ‘Wot’s wot?’ says I. +‘That there,’ says ’e, a-pointin’ over the weather-quarter. I looked, +sir, and strike me blind if there warn’t the body o’ that cow, and we +two ’undred mile to the north’ard o’ where we chucked ’er hoverboard. +She’d drifted there nearly dead ag’in the Trades in twenty-seven days.” +When I told this singular experience to the old man, he said, “The +principal thing that’s the matter with Goggins is that he’s a d---- old +fool.” This being the first occasion on which I ever knew a captain to +omit the handle to a mate’s name. + +However, Captain Scruggs himself told us a strange story later; but as +he is painfully accurate and never enlarges on facts or figures, it is +most likely true. He was bound from Seattle to Manila, master of the +“Judas Dowes,” and while rolling down through the southeast Trades he +fell in with a German ship which asked for the longitude. They had a +little talk together with the flags, and it turned out that she was +from Vancouver for Callao and that she was then one hundred and nine +days out. Nor was this the most remarkable part of the affair, for +she was thirteen hundred miles out of her course! Her chronometers +were out and she had been drifting about in the strong currents for +weeks, working by dead-reckoning. But if this is extraordinary, what +shall be said of the voyage of the ship “Ravenscrag,” which arrived +at Callao not many months ago, one hundred and eighty-four days from +New Whatcom! This place with the musical name is on Puget Sound, so +that the distance which the “Ravenscrag” had to traverse was not more +than six thousand miles in a straight line, yet so extremely difficult +is it to make the coast of South America on account of the Trades +that she was half a year at sea. Sailing ships have to practically +cross the Pacific before they can fetch a port on the Peruvian coast. +Another instance of the delay of this voyage is afforded by one of our +rear-admirals, retired, who told me that he was once almost one hundred +days from San Francisco to Callao in a training-ship, which shows +that the long passage of the “Ravenscrag” was not due to indolence +and bad navigation. The latter vessel’s voyage was infinitely more +extraordinary in comparison than the “T. F. Oakes’s” passage of two +hundred and fifty-nine days from Hong-Kong to New York. + +It is a pity that vessels have to stand so far to the westward here +when bound north in order to get the northeast Trades, but unless +they do they will fall into a great calm region that extends from the +Central American coast to the one hundred and twentieth meridian, and +which reaches as far north as the thirtieth parallel. This is also a +cyclonic zone, which, at certain seasons (particularly in September), +renders the voyage from Panama to San Francisco a very dangerous one +even for large steamers. + +The longest voyage that it is possible to make both in time and +distance is that from Great Britain or New York to the Japanese +and Chinese ports during the northeast monsoon, when vessels sail +completely around Australia and the whole length of the Asian coast +to 35° north rather than beat up through the Sunda Straits, the total +length of the voyage being twenty-one thousand miles. The following +recent passages taken from London “Fair-play” serve to show the +duration of the voyage in days: + + “Ladakh,” New York to Hong-Kong 181 + “Falls of Dee,” New York to Hong-Kong 182 + “John R. Kelley,” New York to Hong-Kong 182 + “Torrisdale,” New York to Hong-Kong 190 + “Emily F. Whitney,” New York to Shanghai 197 + “Musselcrag,” New York to Shanghai 197 + “Ancona,” New York to Shanghai 240 + “Eureka,” Philadelphia to Nagasaki 186 + “George Curtis,” Philadelphia to Nagasaki 197 + “Vimeira,” Philadelphia to Hiogo 189 + “Englehorn,” Philadelphia to Yokohama 180 + +The “Whitney,” “Curtis,” “Kelley,” and “Eureka” are American ships, +their average being one hundred and ninety days; the rest are English, +with an average of one hundred and ninety-four, the miserable passage +of the “Ancona” having spoiled the record of the Britishers. It will +be seen, however, that not one of the ships went out in less than six +months; compare this with the run of the American bark “St. James,” +from New York to Shanghai, of ninety-eight days in the southwest +monsoon, which was not a very wonderful passage. + +The weather is as usual, save that there is a great increase in the +humidity. Latitude, 1° south; longitude, 114° 40′ west. + + ++August 22+ + +North latitude! At nine o’clock this morning we crossed the equator +in 115° 35′ west, and once more entered the Northern Hemisphere. Our +passage of one hundred and three days from New York to this position is +an average one, and we have yet twenty-seven days in which to reach San +Francisco without breaking what the skipper says is his record of never +having been at sea one hundred and thirty days. + +A remarkable circumstance in connection with this part of the world +is the low temperature of both sea and air; the former at noon was 77° +and the latter only 70°, or about the same as the sea in August at New +York. In the Indian and Atlantic Oceans the sea temperature at the +equator is 84° and the air 86°. + +We certainly made a fine run up from Cape Horn. Four weeks ago +to-morrow we were in 60° south, and have, therefore, sailed +thirty-six hundred miles of latitude and forty degrees of longitude +in twenty-seven days. But the wind has been very, very light for +twenty-four hours. We did only one hundred and one miles and just did +contrive to wriggle across the line. Perhaps this is only a light spell +in the Trades, as this wind at this season ought to carry us seven or +eight degrees farther north. + +Sufficient unto the day, etc. The memory of that miserable night last +Wednesday is already beginning to grow dim. Mr. Rarx is improving; +the terrific palpitation of his heart has ceased, and he has had much +natural sleep lately. He did a strange thing last night in the middle +watch: he got up out of his bed and sat for an hour in a chair; his +heart was much relieved, he said, and he certainly does look better. + +This being Sunday I had a long talk in the afternoon watch with MacFoy, +who confirmed what Paddy said of Rarx’s temper. Then happening to +mention Coleman, the bosun remarked, “He’s been pretty quiet since Mr. +Rarx laid him out.” “Laid him out when?” I asked. “Why, didn’t you know +he near killed him when we were towin’ to sea? No? Oh, dear! We were +haulin’ aft the foresheet and Coleman turned his head to say a word +to the man behind him, when the second mate come around the house and +kicked him pretty hard in the legs. ‘What are yer kickin’ me for, sir? +I didn’t do nothin’.’ ‘You lie,’ said Mr. Rarx. ‘What are you sayin’ to +that man? Givin’ me back talk, too.’ Well, sir, with that he jumped +on him when he was stoopin’ over, and I thought his ribs ’ud go afore +he got through with him. Now, look; a bosun’s supposed to be on the +mate’s side. But I say there’s no bit o’ use in a-smashin’ a man all up +that didn’t deserve it, as I’ve seen dozens o’ times in American ships. +I must say there’s some tough cases sails in Yankee ships, but whose +fault is that? It’s the fault o’ the cap’ins and mates themselves. +What man with a little bit o’ self-respec’s goin’ to allow himself to +be knocked around the decks when he can sail in other ships, even if +he is only a foremast hand? A dog won’t stand that, but he can run +away from the man what beats him; but the sailor can’t. But the worst +of the whole thing is that American mates don’t make any difference +atween a blackguard and a man what’s doin’ his best. Some men’s got +to be thumped, it’s the only way to handle ’em; but what’s the good +o’ hittin’ a man with a block like the second mate did to Karl and +then hazin’ him for the rest o’ the passage. It’s mighty little you +know what’s been goin’ on here up forrad; they’ve kep’ it quiet, for +I guess the old man told the mates not to let out afore you and the +lady. But there was a hot time under the forecastle-head some days off +the Horn. I was goin’ out in the ‘S. G. Alley’ a couple o’ year ago to +Japan. ‘Black Taylor’ was mate of her, the toughest man in the toughest +ship under the flag. We were makin’ sail off the Hook and there was a +man surgin’ up on a rope at a capstan; the rope was wet and wouldn’t +render easy, but paid out in short jerks, which, of course, the sailor +couldn’t help. Taylor spotted him, and sung out that if he did it again +he’d come over and fix him. In a minute or so the rope slipped an inch +again, and with that Taylor runs over to him and kicks him into the +water-ways, and was goin’ to lep on his stummick when the man all at +once jumped up, whipped out a knife and drew it up the mate’s vest. +His insides fell out on the deck and he died in a little while. Of +course the ship couldn’t go to sea without a mate, so we turned back +to New York. The sailor was jugged, and what d’ye think he got? Six +months! He pleaded self-defence and Taylor’s black record decided the +jury. I’ll bet this Frenchman of ours’ll get nothin’ at all if only one +man’ll stand by him and tell what he’s seen Mr. Rarx do. I’ve sailed in +a good many American ships, and in every one of them some one was cut +up afore we got in. I’m thinkin’ o’ the Snug Harbor or you’d never see +me in another one.” Latitude, 0° 7′ north; longitude, 115° 47′ west. + + ++August 23+ + +We went along pretty slowly last night, for only the faintest of +breezes came whispering over the Pacific; and it was so still that we +could plainly hear the sighing of porpoises as they rolled languidly +through the water alongside, a brilliant flash of phosphoric light +showing where each disappeared. At daylight this morning, though, a +delightful breeze came singing out of the east-southeast, and by nine +o’clock we were making seven knots, doing twenty-nine miles in the +forenoon watch,--no mean speed for the equatorial ocean. It seems that +the light spell was only a lull in the Trades, for there are plenty of +indications of wind round about. + +At 4.30 yesterday, after pumping, I had yet another conversation with +the doughty Scot. “Have ye taken notice of the way the mate’s slacked +up on the men?” he asked; “that’s a bad sign, now. Here’s this man +cut; before ye’ll remember how he used to shout and charge around the +decks. What do ye hear from him now? Nothin’ at all. I haven’t heard +him raise his voice to one o’ the men since Wednesday night. Why? +’Cause he’s scared. He’s in a funk; and I have the task o’ keepin’ the +ship in order forrad. One o’ them, Tim, was goin’ to get ugly this +forenoon; but I turned on him sharp and says, ‘See here, now, drop +that; you’ve laid one man out, haven’t you? You have; but I’m d---- if +you’re goin’ to lay me out,’ says I, and that settled it for the time. +Who’ve I got to depend on if they do break out? The mate’s no good, +and t’other bosun’s only a child. When Mr. Rarx gets up again you’ll +see some fireworks. Did ye ever hear anythin’ about Cap’n Slocum in +the ‘D. G. Tillie’? He’s another hard nut. I was comin’ around in her +once from Baltimore, bound to ’Frisco with a load o’ coal. One o’ the +men forgot to say ‘sir’ to the second mate one day in a hard squall; +so Slocum clapped the irons on him, and then near beat the life out of +him with a fid. This little bit o’ fun, though, I heard cost him near +two thousand dollars. I’ll tell ye the ships you’d ought to sail in if +ye make another voyage,--one of the Loch Line; they’re grand ships, and +run like men-o’-war; I’ve been in them, and they’re the best that sails +the seas.” + +They are, doubtless, the best run sailing ships in the world, and +were built not alone to carry agricultural implements and wool in the +London-Melbourne trade, but to take out passengers as well. There are +fifteen of them, and all named after Scottish lochs, and they vary in +size from twelve hundred to two thousand tons. If all ships were as +fast as the “Loch Torridon,” tramp steamers would be at a discount. +This vessel goes wherever she can find a charter, and has made a number +of wonderful records. She holds the best record for a deep-loaded ship +from Newcastle, Australia, to San Francisco,--forty-six days. In 1891 +she made the passage from Sydney to London, wool-laden, in eighty days, +beating a fleet of seventy-eight vessels, similarly loaded and bound +to the United Kingdom. It was on this voyage that Captain Pattman, +who has commanded the ship for sixteen years, made a record that is +simply marvellous, by sailing from the Diego Ramirez to the Lizard in +forty-one days! In 1892 the “Loch Torridon,” in ballast, went out to +Melbourne from London in sixty-nine days, and the consecutive runs +for nine days were, in knots, 302, 290, 288, 272, 285, 282, 270, 327, +and 341; and from Saturday noon to Saturday noon the ship made 2119 +knots, an average of 303 knots per day, or about thirteen miles per +hour. Another fast passage of this gallant ship was from Newcastle, +Australia, to Valparaiso in thirty days. It is easy to imagine the +intense pride that a ship-master must feel in such a vessel. Her +picture appears on the opposite page. It is a pity that her royals are +clewed up. + +[Illustration: The four-masted British ship “Loch Torridon”] + +Last evening Louis’s coat and a change of clothes were brought aft +by Charlie, one of the jolly, good-tempered fellows. “Lemme see them +duds,” growled the mate, standing by the wheel-house, who then went +carefully through the pockets for concealed weapons, but found only a +lump of tobacco, which some one had slipped into the pocket, as Louis +is a great masticator of the weed. The mate subsequently transferred +the tobacco to his own pocket, whereupon Charlie actually expostulated +with him, at which Mr. Goggins said never a word! The second mate is +now doing quite well, and ate his first solid food to-day, a bit of dry +toast, but his rations still consist mostly of arrow-root gruel. The +captain told us to-day that last Friday he didn’t think that Mr. Rarx +would live through that day, but a robust constitution has apparently +pulled him past the crisis. The more we ponder on the stabbing affair +the more remarkable it seems that the second mate should have started +the row. If the truth were known, both Rarx and Louis were perhaps +getting a little rusty from disuse and tried to brighten matters up +a little; but Rarx’ll never take another Dago by the throat again +(at sea Frenchmen, Spaniards, and Italians are Dagos; Scandinavians, +Hollanders, and Germans are Dutchmen). Louis will have a very strong +case against the second mate if he can get Karl and some of the +others to testify as to their treatment at the hands of Mr. Rarx; and +self-defence is an excellent plea when a man takes another by the +throat, especially if the said man has been in the habit of utilizing +belaying-pins for other purposes than those for which they were +intended. Latitude, 1° 45′ north; longitude, 117° 15′ west. + + ++August 24+ + +Two hundred and two miles! How’s that for one day’s run in the +southeast Trades two hundred and fifty miles north of the equator? +Indeed, this is the best that we have done for a fortnight, and +it has put all hands in a happy mood. A powerful current setting +west-northwest, two and one-half knots an hour, has been responsible +for about sixty miles of the distance, but the wind is strong at +south-southeast and should give us another good run to-morrow. Except +the Gulf Stream, I do not know of a current in the open sea as strong +as this one, which, if in a harbor, would at times, half bury a small +can-buoy. The heat, though, is very severe now, the humidity and +oppressiveness being extreme. + +The second mate was carried out of his room this forenoon and laid +in a reclining chair on the main-deck. His respiration is improving, +though it is still labored, and he says that he really feels but little +better. The probability of his being able to resume his duties before +we reach port is very remote, which is fortunate for the men, for if +Mr. Rarx should sufficiently recover to stand his watches, there would +be a terrific thumping of sailors. + +The mate went below to put a fresh pair of irons on Louis, and in doing +so handled him very roughly (a courageous performance), so that the +Frenchman sobbed two or three times. “Ha,” quoth Goggins, “blubberin’, +eh? That’s just like you Dagos. You’re nothin’ but a lot of old women +with no more sand than a--a--a--jelly-fish, you ain’t.” People in +glass houses occurred to me then, and I thought how Louis could, any +day, pick up this miserable creature when he went down with his food, +and shake the life out of him with just one of those mighty arms of +his. The Frenchman is unlucky in having such wrists, for there is not +a pair of irons in the ship nearly large enough, and each wrist is +encircled by a ringlet of raw skin where the handcuffs have gripped and +chafed it as though it had been seared with a hot bracelet. I cannot +help feeling sorry for him, in spite of his deed; for it is improbable +that a man whose general character is so good and whose face is so +frank and honest is a villain at heart. Like the rest of his nation, +he is very quick-tempered, and upon the second mate’s catching him by +the throat his hand instantly flew to his weapon, the common sailor’s +sheath-knife. On the other hand, both Tim and Coleman look like typical +hard cases, with restless eyes and evil, discontented, sinister faces. +Why is it that such men are seldom maltreated at sea? It is only such +inoffensive creatures as Karl and Brün who are kicked about a ship’s +deck like curs in an alley-way. Such men as I have mentioned first are +thoroughly wide-awake, too, and know just how far to go in irritating +captains and mates without laying themselves open to punishment; and +when mates cannot detect them, they (the mates) “take it out” on others. + +The most intelligent man forward is a New Yorker, Dick Broadhead, +and, as he has been very willing to talk, we have had some interesting +conversations. He is going out to ship in one of the Pacific mail +steamers as quartermaster, which accounts for so respectable a young +man’s signing in an American vessel. What a splendid lot of young, +native Americans we would have in our merchant marine if boys at sea +in our deep-water ships were treated as they are in the vessels of +other nations! The real American sailor, as he has proved in our naval +achievements, has no superior, and if even the mildest inducements were +offered to young men of decent antecedents to sail in our ships, we +would soon have a merchant service that would be the envy of the rest +of the world. Look at the training-ship “St. Mary’s,” which is supposed +to supply young men to officer our steamers and sailing ships. I have +yet to meet with a single graduate of this excellent institution on +a sailing vessel, for they absolutely refuse to sign in them even as +second mate, saying that until blood and belaying-pins cease to fly +in our long-voyage ships, they would leave them severely alone. The +existing condition of things actually prevents our boys and young men +from joining the merchant service. Why have we not a Plimsoll to strip +our ships of the unprincipled wretches who command and officer them? +Although not a sailor, this excellent man spent most of his life and +ten thousand pounds in ameliorating the condition of English seamen. +If our sailors were treated as they are in the foreign services, we +should have gentlemen’s sons as captains and mates, as they have in +Great Britain and Germany, and not the miserable examples of humanity +that are to be found on the quarter-decks of the majority of our +deep-water-men. The second mate of a ship once said to me, speaking +of the captain of one of our crack San Francisco wind-jammers, “What! +Cap’n B----? Why, he don’t know who his father and mother were.” If +this is the captain, what can you expect? + +But I have drifted away from Broadhead. This is the second ship under +the stars and stripes that he ever served in, having been shanghaied +on board the “Virago” once two or three years before in a Chinese +port. It was this ship’s maiden voyage, and she came home around South +America from Hong-Kong, instead of around Africa. Concerning Captain +Jones, Broadhead remarked, “I’ve seen dummies in command of ships, but +he beats the deck. The first bad squall we had off the Horn, I was +steering, and he was so scared he just held on to the rail and yelled, +and I heard the mate say to him, ‘Why don’t you get the t’-ga’nt-s’ls +off her?’ She went down to the sheer-poles in that squall, and they do +say he hasn’t had anything above the topsails on her since. I’ll give +you a tip: the ‘Virago’s’ got three masts too many for Cap’n Jones.” +Latitude, 4° 24′ north; longitude, 119° 20′ west. + + ++August 25+ + +So joyous a breeze has wafted us along for twenty-four hours that +at noon to-day we were two hundred and two miles from where we were +at the same time yesterday. We have no current now, and our run was +due solely to good, honest winds from south-southeast. At about noon +to-day, though, the breeze shifted to south-southwest, and now (4 ++P.M.+) it is at southwest and not strong. It is probable that +we have lost the Trades, after holding them for thirty-five degrees +of latitude,--a remarkable piece of luck. It was grand sailing then; +the very finest that we ever had. But hence to 15° north will no +doubt be a trying week. It was a matter of some surprise to us when +we first learned that the light southwesterly wind that blows between +the Trades in the Atlantic and Pacific is called a monsoon. It is +generally supposed that the term monsoon, which is from the Arabian +_mawsun_, signifying season, is applied to certain winds on the +southeast coast of Asia only. + +Gracious, how hot it is here now! What a difference in a few hours! +At noon, with the sky heavily overcast and on the coolest part of +the deck, the thermometer stood at 84°. In equatorial regions it +is only when far removed from salt-water that the mercury rises to +such altitudes as 130°; this fearful temperature is experienced in +many localities, such as Northern India, Mojave Desert, in Southern +California, and in parts of Australia. In such places as Para, +Singapore, and Madras, though close to the equator, the temperature +seldom rises more than two or three degrees above 90°. Anything higher +than 80° in such places, as well as at sea, would be considered almost +unbearable by most people. + +While my wife and I were reading on the deck-house this morning we +observed the wee cook in transports of delight, the cause of which +became apparent when he held up a fine bonito. We went down to look at +it, and then perceived two men on the jib-boom end fishing for them, so +we climbed up on the top-gallant forecastle-head to watch the sport. +It was delightful up there, cool and breezy from the gush that whirled +out of the curve of the foresail. We braced ourselves against the +knight-heads and, looking down over the lofty, flaring bows, we could +see dozens of bonitos darting swiftly about the cut-water as we swept +grandly on through the blue, transparent sea. Far out on the tapering +end of the spar were Charley and Olsen; the former with the line in his +hand, the hook being concealed by that singular and universal deep-sea +bait, a bit of white cotton cloth. Charley kept the hook just touching +the surface, except when he jerked it sharply upward, in imitation +of the flight of the flying-fish, which form the principal food of +the voracious bonito. It would be all but impossible to conceive a +more beautiful scene than that which fascinated us for half an hour. +The fish themselves were of the most exquisite colors, some brilliant +blue, some magenta, others of a rich purple; and as they flashed +through the water with incredible speed, twisting and twirling about +in pursuit of their prey, with now and then a gleam of silvery white +from their under parts, they looked not unlike segments of a vivid +rainbow. Presently one would shoot clear out of the water for the bait, +straight and swift as a dart, and seize it in his toothless but greedy +jaws. A great churning and splashing would follow, and then Charlie, +almost hysterical with excitement, would haul up the lithe, handsome +creature, quivering and vibrating as though galvanized. No sooner would +he be hooked than perhaps a hundred flying-fish would break through +the surface and sail gleaming away for a few rods, only to fall into +the rapacious mouths of their enemies. The spectacle was one long to +be cherished: the whizzing flight of the glittering little fish, the +lustrous-hued bonitos, the tranquil surface of the ocean, broken here +and there with foaming ripples, and the lofty tiers of canvas rearing +themselves higher and higher toward the clouds. + +Captain Scruggs continues his quiet, almost agreeable manner, answers +pleasantly, and has little to say at meals. It is aggravating to think +that the skipper knew quite well how he ought to have behaved during +the voyage, and that he simply didn’t care “whether school kept or +not.” Now and then the silence is broken during dinner by a shattering +crash of the old man’s ponderous foot upon the oil-cloth floor, while +he simultaneously yells, “Get out o’ here, you homely thing!” This +is an exhortation to the gaunt, pop-eyed cat, which sometimes slinks +into the cabin at meals. It seems impossible to fatten this singular +animal, and it skulks and stalks about the decks as lank and ribbed as +a Calcutta jackal, with its huge saffron eyes fixed motionlessly upon +you in so startling a fashion that it looks like an incarnation of one +of Cruikshank’s drawings. Its notions of sport are equally strange; +Tommie, the sleek Maltese, has been trying to teach it how to play, +but when Tom rushes sportively at it, the other executes a series of +prodigious, vertical leaps, with its legs flat out at right angles, and +in another moment vanishes with an eldrich cry. + +Mr. Rarx is about the same; two of the men supported him to-day while +he tried to hobble about the deck; but he cannot for an instant even +stand alone. Latitude, 6° 56′ north; longitude, 121° 15′ west. + + ++August 26+ + +We are now certain that we have lost the Trades. The wind has been +steady at southwest for twenty-four hours, and, though not a strong +breeze, we made more than two degrees of latitude, which is not bad +going for this region, and three days of it would take us into the +northeast winds. It is intensely hot and moist, and heavy showers pelt +us every half-hour; but it is a fine chance for cleaning ship, and all +hands are at work scrubbing off the old paint from the bulwarks and +deck-houses preparatory to the new coat. + +How I wish we could get a photograph in colors of that villain, Tim +Powers! I never supposed that one of the human species could so nearly +in appearance approach the simian race. His head and jaws are covered +with a thick growth of bright-red hair, which continues down his +throat till it meets a shaggy breast. The body, powerfully made, is +curved forward like an ape’s, and long, thick arms, hair-covered to +the knuckles, swing loosely well below the middle; and he waddles in +his gait like a monkey endeavoring to walk upright. The best possible +description of this animal is to say that he is ever so much more like +a chimpanzee than a chimpanzee is. Besides all this, he is so dirty +that the rest of the men follow him with their eyes as he moves about +the deck. + +Those who are not especially interested in the well-being of our +sailors may find the following dissertation somewhat tiresome; but +the facts about to be set forth ought to be known to the public, as +they certainly are not, so that I will not begin these remarks with an +apology for their length. + +In every port of any size in the United States there are a number of +men whose business it is to maintain boarding-houses for sailors,--that +is, they are known to the outside world as boarding-house-keepers, +but in reality they form one of the most extensive aggregations of +criminals, thieves, and persecutors to be met with in any country of +the world that boasts a high civilization. Their technical name is +crimps. The Encyclopædic Dictionary defines a crimp as “one who keeps +a low lodging-house, into which sailors and others are decoyed and +then robbed”; but it would be impossible to present properly, in so +small a space, the different phases and extensions of a system which +for generations has eluded and defied investigation and has baffled +the attempts of well-meaning but incapable legislators. New York is +the hot-bed of crimps, for there are more than fifty boarding-houses +in the city near the water-front. Take the case of a vessel just in +from a long voyage. No sooner does the anchor touch bottom than her +decks are suddenly and mysteriously filled with strange men, who pay no +attention to the captain or mates, but go at once into the forecastle +among the sailors. They are the runners for the crimps,--men whose +business it is to supply the sailors with grog which they have brought +on board for the purpose, and then decoy and persuade them to their +respective establishments. Every sailor at the end of a voyage has but +half of his wages coming to him (more of this by and by), say about +forty dollars. The crimp at once takes a week’s board in advance and +then, having drenched the unfortunate with the vilest of rum, it is a +matter of but two or three days until the crimp has wheedled him out of +the rest of his hard-earned gains, and then he gets in his finest work +by opening an account with the sailor for lodging, meals, drinks, etc. +He then at once becomes the slave of the crimp and must do his bidding; +not only can the latter prevent him from securing employment (in this +free country!), but can actually prevent a ship-master from getting +a crew, unless he signifies his willingness to deal with him; and as +I have said, so powerful (politically) is the crimping organization +in New York that it successfully defies all effort at checking it and +controls absolutely the shipping of sailors in New York. When a captain +wishes to engage a crew, not finding one at the shipping commissioners, +where they are supposed to be, he is compelled to apply to a crimp, +and if sailors are scarce at the time, he will charge the captain so +much per head! If the sailors are plentiful, though, he will not charge +the captain anything for supplying him with a crew; in fact, he will +go to the extremity of paying the latter a bonus for the privilege of +shipping his men, in order to prevent some other crimp from securing +his business, taking the precaution of charging the sailors a fee +sufficiently large to make up the deficiency. This fee is known among +sailors as “blood-money,” and it varies from one to twenty dollars +_per capita_; in our own case, the amount that each foremast hand +had to pay for being allowed to sail in this ship was five dollars; and +though their wages are so small (about eighteen dollars a month) it +would be useless for them to object to the blood-money; alternative, +starvation in the streets. This practice of paying ship owners and +masters for the privilege of supplying them with sailors has grown so +common that it is regarded by many owners and captains as a legitimate +source of income; so much so, that the majority refuse to sign other +than a crimp’s crew. The shipping commissioner, a federal officer, is +supposed to look after the gathering together of a ship’s company; the +men, it is true, sign the articles in his presence, but that is the sum +total of his connection with the shipment of sailors. Why doesn’t the +commissioner stop the crimping? He is well aware, of course, that it +goes on; but he does not seek to prevent it because he is instructed +not to interfere with the accredited “_agents_” of the owners, and +it must not be forgotten that under the fee system in vogue at present +the commissioners are, to a great extent, dependent upon the good-will +of the owners for their income. Any attempt of the commissioner to +interfere with the “agents” of the latter would evoke a strong protest +from them, and would, perhaps, end in the suppression of the office of +commissioner; therefore the majority of the owners insist that their +“agents” shall be respected. + +In many instances the commissioners have been utterly unfit for the +office they have held, for they are supposed to look after the welfare +of seamen, besides their shipment. It is even said that some have been +appointed from the forces of the crimps themselves. Others have been +common ward politicians (those who know New York will appreciate this), +and even a metal-worker has in the past held the office at New York; +while the most influential candidate for the position now at one of our +greatest ports is a sign-painter! It will be appreciated at once how +much men of this sort know of the grievances of sailors whom they are +supposed to protect. + +The allotment system which obtains now when sailors are about to go to +sea is a most iniquitous arrangement. The law says that “a sailor may +stipulate in his shipping agreement for the allotment of any portion +of his wages which he may earn to his wife, mother, or other relative, +or to an original creditor in liquidation of any just debt for board +or clothing which he may have contracted prior to an engagement.” +This law was evidently framed to the advantage of the sailor, but in +its ambiguity lies its detriment to seamen. Of course, the “original +creditor” is the crimp (which was obviously not what the law intended), +who has turned the words “may stipulate” into “must stipulate.” When +a ship-master makes known to a crimp that he wants a crew, the crimp +rounds up the required number of men, marches them to the shipping +commissioner’s, where they sign the articles and are paid usually two +months’ advance wages (which is not lawful until it is turned into an +“allotment”). This money, forty dollars in round numbers, is given to +the crimp (“the original creditor”), who then extracts from the sum an +amount three or four times in excess of what the man is really indebted +to him, arranges for the blood-money, and hands the rest (if any money +remains) to the victim. Frequently all of his advance is necessary to +liquidate this “just debt,” and the man goes to sea without a cent. +On the voyage he gets in debt to the ship for the slop-chest account, +clothing, oil-skins, boots, tobacco, etc., and at the end of the +voyage, if it lasts four months, generally not more than a month’s +wages are due him. This is secured by the crimp at the destination, and +the old story of robbery and persecution is repeated. No foreign nation +that I know of, at least none of the highest rank, allows crimping. The +government has charge of the procuring of crews, and any infringement +or interference by an outsider is a criminal offence, and, more than +that, it is always punished as such. The United States government has +never attempted to stamp out the crimps, and they, in turn, have never +experienced any difficulty in prosecuting their lawless and miserable +business. + +Every time that a sailor signs articles any one or all of the following +laws are violated, which the commissioner placidly disregards, and of +which other government officials seem to be in complete ignorance: + +1st. The payment of advance prohibited under penalty, fine, and +imprisonment. 23 St. at L., page 55, Section 10, Dingley act, June 26, +1884; pages 66, 67 of U. S. Navigation Laws, also subdivision, Section +4522, U. S. R. S. + +2d. Misuse of allotment notes. See 24 St. at L., page 80, Section 3, +act June 19, 1886, and page 67, U. S. Navigation Laws. + +3d. Payment of blood-money strictly forbidden. Section 4609, U. S. R. S. + +4th. Withholding wages four or five days to bring seamen into the power +of crimps. Section 4529, U. S. R. S. + +5th. Withholding seamen’s baggage to prevent them from seeking +employment on their own account. Prohibition and penalty, Section 4536, +U. S. R. S., as amended February 18, 1895; page 68, U. S. Navigation +Laws. + +6th. Soliciting lodgers (employment of runners) on inward-bound ships. +Section 4607, U. S. R. S; page 71, U. S. Navigation Laws. + +All these violations tend directly to the demoralization and +degradation of sailors, and ought to be immediately abolished. + +Why our shipping laws should be so frequently broken, and with +the utmost impunity, is, I think, partly due to their ambiguous +construction, for many of them were prepared by either ship-owners or +crimps with an abundance of political influence, and also partly to +our lax method of carrying out the laws that we have framed; and they +are disregarded because it would not be to the advantage of any one +save the sailor, for whom they were supposed to have been enacted, +to enforce them. The grievances of seamen are not popular subjects +with the authorities, because of the peculiar obstacles generally met +with in efforts to prove them; while the amount of damages awarded to +sailors, except in unusual cases, do not offer sufficient inducements +to the sort of maritime lawyers who would be likely to bring the cases +to a successful issue. + +As that able writer on the subject and champion of sailors, Mr. James +H. Williams, says, “The complaining seaman has usually arrayed against +him the combined powers of the wealthy ship-owners; the cunning, +unscrupulous, and designing crimp; the sagacity and ability of the most +experienced lawyers; and sometimes the traditional prejudice of the +judicial mind is often turned against him. With this combination to +overcome on the merits of his case alone, the allegations of the sailor +must be well sustained indeed to enable him to win.” As for the cases +of sailors suing for damages for maltreatment at sea, the difficulties +encountered by them when seeking justice lie in the facilities afforded +the offender--that is, the master or mate--to escape; the obstacles +that the owners put in the way of his apprehension; and the disposal of +the witnesses--“shanghaiing”--either by _bribery or intimidation by +the crimps_. + +Mr. Williams has accurately and truthfully summed up the seaman’s +condition in the United States as follows: “The sailor is degraded +to be more effectually robbed; he is cheated for want of official +protection; he is not protected because of his own utter helplessness, +and because we have no recognized shipping system such as exists in +Great Britain, for instance. In this country the sailor is often +despised because of his nationality; in European countries he is +usually honored for the same reason. When this nation rises to a +realizing sense of its own responsibility and manifest duty to the +sailor, and provides proper laws for his protection and adequate means +for their enforcement, both our merchant marine and navy will become +Americanized, seamanship will become an honorable calling, and American +boys will go to sea.” + +Over against this wretched treatment allowed to exist by the government +of the United States, for its commissioners make no attempt to prevent +it, stands forth the protection accorded the sailors of Great Britain +and Germany. Seamen are well taken care of in the latter country; but +in Great Britain there exists a system of sailor protection ashore, +so perfect as to leave little or nothing to be desired; and the +perfection of its detail has led me to show the workings of this scheme +in the next few pages, a scheme that is _facile princeps_, and +that ought to be a model for the rest of the world. The shipment of +seamen in Great Britain is conducted under the superintendence of the +Board of Trade; this is a separate department of the government, and +upon it devolves the supervision and control of the entire merchant +marine,--_i.e._, commerce and navigation. The president of the +Board of Trade is a cabinet minister, and of course occupies a seat +in Parliament; and the duties of the Board are defined and guided by +acts of Parliament. Among other specific functions, the Board of Trade +must provide for the shipment, care, and protection of seamen, and +must frame and _enforce_ (that’s the great point) proper laws +for the suppression of crimping and similar abominations. Inasmuch +as the Board was organized solely with reference to the interests of +sailors and commerce, its officers have been, in nearly every case, +judiciously chosen for their peculiar fitness and natural aptitude +for the work rather than for any _political views_ they may have +held, or because of any _influence_ exercised in favor of their +appointment. As a result of this common-sense arrangement a most +efficient and reliable body of officials has been secured, and for +this reason the Board of Trade, from being considered at first a very +troublesome innovation by maritime people, has succeeded in forming +relations so close as to be almost indispensable with ship-owners and +merchants throughout Great Britain; and what is even more remarkable, +and certainly just as important, it has secured the confidence, +improved the character, and protected the rights, interests, and +persons of seamen to an extent which no other institution in any +country has ever attained. + +In all ports of Great Britain subdivisions of the Board of Trade, +called Local Marine Boards, are established, each having authority over +local maritime affairs. Seamen are entitled to direct representation on +these local Boards, which are now maintained by the home government at +various foreign seaports between Hamburg and Brest. + +In Great Britain the shipping and discharging of seamen is conducted +and superintended by government officers, _and no person other than +duly appointed officials of the Board of Trade are permitted to enter +the shipping office under any pretext whatever while business is being +transacted between master and crew under severe penalty_. Crimps +and all manner of “beach pirates” are particularly objectionable, and +if found on the premises occupied by an official shipping bureau, +are incarcerated without the slightest ceremony. Every shipment of +seamen must take place at a government office except in extraordinary +cases provided for in the law. When crews are wanted, notices to that +effect are posted at the shipping office, on the vessels requiring +them, and in other places where sailors will be likely to see them. +Men desiring employment then proceed to the shipping office, present +their _discharges_ to the official, who in turn hands them to the +captain. In this way crews are selected, and it will be perceived what +an excellent body of men a captain can thus gather together. A seaman +without his discharges generally finds great difficulty in obtaining a +berth in England unless he can offer proof as to his previous service +and character. These discharges are usually enclosed in a sort of +wallet furnished by the government for a small sum, and are always +accepted as evidence of the men’s rating, ability, and conduct. They +are retained by the master until the end of the voyage, when they are +returned to the owners with a new one added. + +Aside from the mere formal engagement and official protection from +“water-front parasites,” the Board of Trade is of immense importance +and value to British sailors in a variety of ways altogether too +numerous for enumeration here. Suffice it to say, then, that the +many shining features of this splendid institution have proved of +incalculable benefit to English sailors and their families, while the +practical results obtained by means of its beneficent influence have +contributed in no small degree to the present maritime greatness and +power of the British nation. + +Compare this method with the American fashion of throwing a dozen +or more poor, wretched, half-starved, drunken creatures on board a +ship, who have been robbed of their small pittance, gained often when +looking into death’s jaws without so much as a flinch; and frequently +stripped of every garment save the underclothes which alone cover +them, the hapless victims of the laxity and the passive indifference +of the United States government, commence the voyage of four or six +months in a ship commanded in many, many instances by men little short +of devils, and officered by men worse than beasts, conscious that +for themselves it is merely a case of “out of the pan into the fire.” +Latitude, 8° 53′ north; longitude, 122° west. + + ++August 27+ + +Last night was one of terrific heat. Imagine a temperature of 87° at +one in the morning, with an atmosphere so oppressive with humidity +that instead of sustaining a weight of fifteen pounds per square inch +the body seems to be supporting at least thirty. It was hotter than +any night that I ever remember afloat or ashore. There was a peculiar, +smothering quality in the atmosphere, which was so heavy and moist +that it seemed as though you ought to be able to seize a handful and +squeeze the water out of it. The very essence of humidity seemed to be +instilled into the air, and my wife, who readily withstood the heat in +the Bay of Bengal at the close of the wet season, nearly fainted in +the middle watch. It must not be supposed that because the air is pure +that people do not suffer in hot weather at sea; that is an idea held +only by those who have never crossed the equator. If the hygrometer +would drop even to eighty-five or ninety the temperature could be +conveniently borne; but this almost continual saturation is exceedingly +trying. Think of the sufferings of passengers in the Red Sea, when +steamers often have to alter their course and proceed against the wind +to prevent people from dying of heat apoplexy! + +The captain has once more donned his white drill suits, the jackets of +which button closely up under the throat, like soldiers’ tunics in the +tropics. By this arrangement it is not necessary to wear an ordinary +shirt underneath; and at first glance the skipper looks to be most +suitably and airily attired, and you envy him the possession of his +gossamer tunics, until at meals, when there is an expansion of his +corporeal sphericity which opens the spaces between the tunic buttons. +And then, oh, horrors! the sight is blasted by the lurid glare of a +red flannel undershirt! Red flannel on the equator! It is enough to +throttle you, and the temperature instantly rises several degrees. No +man ought to be allowed to so afflict his fellow-creatures. + +Last night when I went on deck at 9.30 the skipper was on the lee +side, looking at the heavens. On seeing me he said, “Well, there’s our +old friend, the pole star; we haven’t seen him for many a day.” Now, +I ought to have known better than to attempt any joke, but it seemed +likely that he would surely know this ancient pleasantry of mariners, +so I answered,-- + +“Yes; as the saying is, the pole star is the first land you make coming +up from Cape Horn.” + +This threw him into a grave meditation, at the end of which he +ominously observed, “I don’t see what you mean.” I had by this time +forgotten all about the star, and had to ask him in turn what _he_ +meant. + +“Why, how do you mean that the pole star is the first land you make?” +he demanded, bristling; “you often see Juan Fernandez.” + +“Oh, well,” I answered, desiring propitiation, “sailors used to say +that in the old days, meaning that it reminded them that they were once +more in northern latitudes.” + +“Well, _I_ never heard it,” he returned; “and, anyhow, we don’t +know whether hit’s land _or_ water.” Here I fled, unable to +withstand the strain any longer. + +At dinner to-day he unexpectedly relapsed into his usual morose, +contrary humor, and came strutting and stamping into the dining-room, +glaring at every object, till his eye lit on a plate of rather stale +hard bread on the table; then he grabbed some, fiercely bit an enormous +piece out of it, threw the rest back into the platter, dropped into his +seat with a crash that shook the tumblers, and shouted at the quaking +steward, “Ain’t I told yer not to put nothin’ on the table but what’s +fit for a white man to eat?” Deep silence followed as he dashed the +soup around in the tureen with the ladle and fell upon his dinner; and +my wife, without thinking, observed, “Well, this is the hottest we have +had yet.” “No,” said Captain Scruggs, “it ain’t, hit’s nice and cool.” +Angry at this flat contradiction, I told him that the thermometer, +unlike many people, always told the truth, and that it was 88° on +deck. “In the sun,” he replied, which he knew wasn’t so; while that +devilish Goggins smiled blandly at us, as if to say, “You can’t catch +_him_”; but I stood by for developments. Presently the old man +began to shift about in his seat; then he made the curious remark that +it was too warm for rain; in ten minutes more the perspiration began to +stream from his face, and in another five minutes he got up and left +the cabin, almost prostrated with the heat on this cool and pleasant +day; though as he departed he attributed it to “them beans bein’ too +heavy eatin’.” The mate followed him, with a face like a worn-out wet +carriage sponge. + +We have crossed the sun and he is at last south of us and casts shadows +in the opposite direction from yesterday. We haven’t had the racks on +the table for two days, which means a phenomenally smooth sea; the +ocean often appears quiet enough to the eye, but there is nearly always +a swell present that would play havoc with glasses and bottles. This is +the first time that we haven’t used the fiddles since leaving New York. +Latitude, 10° 44′ north; longitude, 122° 35′ west. + + ++August 28+ + +Another very hot day and night, but not comparable with yesterday, +when a draught of air out of the sails was more like a blast from +Tophet than a breath from this great ocean. It was possible to get +considerable sleep last night, and on the whole we did very well; +for even if we made only seventy-five miles, it was in the right +direction. During the whole of the first watch last night there wasn’t +even a suspicion of wind and the silence that reigned was wonderfully +impressive, so that we were deeply awed by the solemnity of the scene. +All about the zenith was a large area of perfectly clear sky thickly +dusted with stars that shone with a calm splendor not to be seen except +near the equator. + + “By night those soft, lasceevious stars + Leer from those velvet skies,” + +saith Kipling. + +About 45° from the zenith a mist commenced, thickening gradually +into clouds dense and black, their lofty cones and dark abysses +brought forth with startling clearness by great ceaseless surges of +heat-lightning that enveloped the horizon like undulating, violet +flames. On board no sound broke the stillness, which was that of the +Arctic icefields, for minutes at a time, except now and then the +creak of a yard that broke harshly on the ear, or the pleasant sound +of a light swell at long intervals that chuckled to itself under +the counter; and we floated motionless upon the deep, wrapped in an +absolute and breathless calm. And the golden, bell-like tones of the +exquisite _andante_ from the Sonata Appassionata seemed to dwell +in the air; tones which Beethoven said was his own conception of the +music of the spheres, for the movement occurred to him one night in the +hills, while contemplating the stellar glories of a clear, tranquil +sky. Oh, what majesty in such a night! Oh, the solemn grandeur of +this phase of nature! Indeed, it is difficult to say which exerts the +more powerful influence over the mind: a gale of wind or a great, +soundless calm, when every star in the firmament seems reflected in +the motionless sea. + +Throughout this forenoon, too, the wind was of the lightest sort, +though this fact was productive of some little diversion. Shortly +after ten o’clock the captain called our attention to several sharks +wandering about far down in the blue depths under the stern, and +presently several dolphin appeared hovering about the rudder, offering, +with their agility and marvellous coloring, a striking contrast to the +slothful, sombre sharks. All at once the old man ran off, and then +returned with a formidable engine of destruction, consisting of a huge +iron hook strong enough to sustain an ox, with a short length of wire +rope attached to it. His other hand clutched a mass of oleaginous +pork, from which liquid fat exuded in the rays of a baking sun. This +delicacy, the mere sight of which would revolt the stomach of an emu, +the skipper gayly secured on the hook, and then bent the whole affair +to a long line as big as the main-brace. This gear would really have +been suitable for the capture of nothing smaller than a ninety-barrel +whale; but the captain surveyed his arrangements with much urbanity +and dropped the contrivance over the stern. There was no shark in +sight, but one speedily appeared, and propelled himself with great +caution toward the bait; his eye caught the cable then to which it +was fastened, and he sheered off. When he had manœuvred thus several +times, he seemed to summon his friends, for three more of the creatures +mysteriously appeared. They, too, were very shy at first; but at length +they began to turn slightly on their backs as they approached, a sure +sign that before long they would seize the bait. At last the largest +one swam boldly up to it, turned over, opened his wicked jaws, his +double row of triangular teeth closed upon the extreme edge of the +meat, and he deftly tore the whole piece off the hook, while he seemed +to smile as he leisurely rejoined his companions. + +Then the skipper fetched another lump of pork-fat, which he kneaded +and squelched in his hand as he walked along. Again the same wily +beast took the bait, and once more we drew up the naked hook. After +a repetition of this, the skipper, with much pomposity, rigged the +harpoon and bade me stand by with it while he endeavored to entice the +sharks close under the counter with another pound of pork. Several +times I hove the weapon without the least risk to any of the sharks, +though I all but followed the harpoon overboard at every lunge, and +once contrived to stand in the bight of the rope, which nearly cut me +in two; and we could perceive the iron plunge down fathom after fathom +in the transparent water. Finally I did strike one in the middle of +the back, but the harpoon bounded off his tough hide and he glided +away unharmed. This was discouraging, and we desisted soon afterward, +as we had to carry on the attack under a terrific sun. The sharks +looked unspeakably comfortable, sauntering around below the rudder, now +sinking out of sight, now cleaving the surface at a distance with their +sharp dorsal fins, upright like sabres, and I was secretly well pleased +that we didn’t kill one, for I must confess that the sight of a shark +does not throw me into convulsions of horror, nor does it consume me +with the fanatical thirst for slaughter, which is the general effect +produced by the appearance of one of these beasts. + +Each of these sharks was attended by the familiar little pilot-fish, +about the size of a small mackerel, with his body wonderfully +marked with bands of dark blue and black, as sharply defined as the +turning-post of a croquet set; strange it surely is to see these tiny +fellows fearlessly maintain their position just under the gaping mouth. + +As indicated elsewhere, Mr. Goggins hasn’t much to say these days, +although he has recovered somewhat from the cataleptic state into which +the stabbing of the second mate threw him. He was quite talkative last +night in his watch, and congratulated me upon my not smoking, saying, +“I’m glad to see you don’t use these cigareets; they’re bad things, and +I can tell you why,--’cause they’re full o’ nicoline.” + +The second mate is pulling slowly along, with sunken cheeks and hollow +eyes, an ill-looking man, and what is more miserable than a sick +sailor? Every one aboard ship has his own duties to perform, and scant +attention and no sympathy is vouchsafed to the luckless man confined to +his room. Latitude, 11° 49′ north; longitude, 123° 5′ west. + + ++August 29+ + +The northeast Trades! Yes, the northeast Trades! Even the skipper is +pretty sure that they have arrived, though we are still three degrees +south of where they generally are in August. It is a piece of very good +luck, for we all expected to be several days more in the Doldrums, and +those who were on deck when the wind came in a squall at sunrise hardly +dared to breathe or move for fear that it would be nothing but a puff. +But as the hours wore on and the breeze momentarily increased, it was +soon apparent that the Trades had reached us. How vastly different +to-day is from yesterday! Then, all stagnation and blighting, withering +heat; now, all motion and joy and sparkling sea. We had not a breath of +air for eight solid hours last night, though, and the wrath of Abner +Scruggs was very, very great. From eight to ten, during his watch on +deck, we, sitting on the cabin-house, could hear him muttering and +thumping away by the wheel-house, and we privately smiled thereat. +Finally, after a couple of hours of this harlequin act, my wife went +below; and then I went over to him and listened to the liveliest sort +of arguments that he had with himself for nearly an hour. In vain he +tried to draw me into them, and as a last resort he began on Central +Park. “That’s a queer kind of a park, that is, where they won’t let +people walk on the grass. Why don’t they have it like the park in +Sydney? What’s a park for, anyway? Why don’t they put the thing in a +glass case?” But I let him gibber on, and when I turned in, a little +later, he had wrought himself into one of his passions. + +A day or two ago I was reading at the wheel-house door. The hour was +ten in the morning, and hardly a sound was to be heard. The old man was +below asleep and the mate was at work on the main-deck. Old Kelly was +steering, and suddenly he leaned over and said, “Can you tell me about +where she is, sir?” in a whisper. Then he went on, “I want to tell +you somethin’; if ’twasn’t for you and the lady there’d be trouble in +this ship.” “There has been trouble,” said I. Kelly glanced askance at +me and answered disdainfully, “Ho! I don’t call _that_ trouble; +that’s what you expect when you ship in a Yankee. What I mean is real +trouble that begins with M. But the men, even the worst of ’em, have +got such a regard for your lady for the way she behaved off Cape Horn, +and all through the voyage for that matter, that they’re holdin’ in +for her sake.” Whether this was said with some ulterior motive it is +impossible to tell; but Kelly spoke in a calm voice as if he meant +what he said. What he suggested by his mysterious M. was a word that +I have never heard a sailor pronounce,--mutiny. To them it is a word +too full of deadly meaning for ordinary conversation. For, generally +speaking, there are only two things aboard ship,--one is duty, and the +other is mutiny. All that a seaman is ordered to do is duty; all that +he refuses to do is mutiny. Rarx is beginning to lose heart as well as +flesh, and says that if he lives to see the Farallones he’ll surprise +himself. This is unfortunate, and we are doing all we can to cheer him +up. Latitude, 12° 30′ north; longitude, 124° 30′ west. + + ++August 30+ + +Our course has been bad for twenty-four hours, as during the greater +part of that period we steered nothing to the northward of west, +and our present course would take us to Honolulu in 165°. Ships are +generally forced over to 140° or 145° even under ordinary conditions, +and if we do not find ourselves 20° west of San Francisco when the +Trades let go, we will do well. The weather, though, is perfect; warmer +certainly than in the southeast Trades, but not at all disagreeable in +the shade,--about 81° at mid-day. A very acceptable change since we +took this wind is that there have been no more rain-squalls. During +the late Doldrums these squalls were at times practically continuous; +and while the old man did finally rig up a bit of canvas, six feet by +six, to serve as an awning, under which we had to crouch as though in +the ’tween-decks, it was not of much use in the rain. It was extremely +annoying to have to gather up the backgammon-board, two novels, a lot +of sewing, a pillow, and two chairs and dash for the wheel-house half +a dozen times a watch. Often the squalls lasted only two or three +minutes, yet there was enough water in each shower to drench everything. + +There is a very ingenious way of disposing of the main-top-sail and +top-gallant-halliards on the “Higgins.” They are always very bulky, +heavy ropes, and when coiled over a pin in the rail are very unsightly +objects. To obviate this, there are two large reels in the monkey-rail +at the forward end of the cabin-house, one on each side, upon which +the free end of these ropes are wound when the yards have been +mastheaded. A bit of twine then secures the reel to prevent the +halliards paying out, and another piece stops it (the rope) up to the +shrouds, clear of the men’s heads on the main-deck. When the yards have +to be lowered, a sharp jerk breaks the twine, and the halliards run +off without danger of fouling. It is a clever scheme and ought to be +in more general use, the only drawback to it being that a hand has to +mount the poop and reel up the halliards again when the yards have been +hoisted; but that is a small matter. + +I went down into the lazarette yesterday afternoon, after Louis had +gone forward, and found that his quarters were not so stiflingly hot +as might have been expected; the Frenchman still bears his confinement +with extraordinary indifference. Mr. Rarx passed a very bad night. +Latitude, 13° 17′ north; longitude, 126° west. + + ++August 31+ + +On this, the last day of August, we have but little cause for +rejoicing. In the first place, the wind has been dead against us +and light at that; and, in the second place, the captain is in so +churlish a temper as to barely answer yes and no to civil questions. +Shortly before four o’clock yesterday the wind began to ease up, and +by nightfall had dwindled to a light air, and then whipped into the +north-northwest, so that our course up to eight this morning was west, +and we got that only by pinching her, so that our speed was seldom more +than two knots. The night was a gorgeous one, with a sky that glistened +with golden stars, while a new moon hung low down in the west; and far +away in the southeast, over the face of a black cloud, shimmered waves +of heat-lightning, lovely in the extreme. + +By morning, as there were no indications of coming up, the captain +concluded to tack ship, which was done between eight and nine o’clock; +and we discovered, when braced up on the port tack, that we looked up +to north-northeast, which was by no means bad. At the present time, +three in the afternoon, the wind is a fresh, even a strong breeze, and +we are doing pretty well except for a long head-swell, into which we +plunge so heavily that we are not doing more than five knots instead of +seven or eight. + +The captain is in a worse humor than ever before, though it must be +said that the evolution of tacking ship this morning was accomplished +quietly, and, what is much more remarkable, without a single oath. +Conversation at meals has been almost completely suspended again, +except that my wife and I converse together, ignoring the captain +entirely; this would be childish behavior on our part were it not +that every remark that we have made lately has met with either a +rough denial or indifferent silence. He asked us the other day +whether Captain Kingdon of the “Mandalore” used to lose his temper +in calms and head-winds; a question which we found much pleasure in +answering in a vehement negative. The sailors have resumed most of +their erstwhile good humor, perhaps on account of the proximity of +the end of the voyage; it is reassuring to see them thus again, for +a score of brooding, scowling sailors aboard ship is an unpleasant +reminder of what the men could do if they were determined. Indeed, +from a passenger’s point of view, I would far rather see a captain in +a perpetual bad humor than the men. Considering all the ill-treatment +that sailors get, it is extraordinary at first sight that they do not +vindicate more frequently their wrongs at sea by quietly dropping +the after-guard over the side. It is perfectly feasible to dispose +of the officer of the watch at night. A single well-aimed blow of an +iron belaying-pin in the helmsman’s hand is all that is necessary; +and the captain and the other mate are asleep below and both could +be readily made away with. But on close inspection two very strong +reasons are disclosed showing why it is that the sailor does not more +readily appear in the _rôle_ of avenger. The first reason is, not +being a navigator, what is to become of the ship? and if they do reach +a port, what credible story can be concocted? Murder will out. The +second reason is to be found in that wonderful sense of obedience to +captain and officers apparent in even the most desperate and abandoned +seamen; so blind is their submission to authority, however grossly and +fiendishly it may be abused, that they sometimes at the present day, in +our own long-voyage ships, suffer death itself rather than resist him +whom the law has invested with power so absolute that the might of a +sultan suffers in comparison! But too few of our sailing-ship-masters +seem to be possessed of the ordinary feelings of humanity toward their +crews. After they have exhausted all other defences in upholding their +bad treatment of sailors, they nearly always conclude by saying, “Well, +what have we got in our ships? A lot of Dutch and English scum that +you’ve got to lick h---- out of afore they’ll obey an order.” But how +about the “S. P. Hitchcock” and the “St. James,” commanded respectively +by Captains Gates and Banfield? Here are two deep-water American +ships, who also have to take whatever crews the shipping masters give +them, so that they are not a whit better off in the quality of their +sailors than other vessels; yet there is never any trouble aboard of +them at sea, and good-will and cheerfulness pervade both vessels. They +have made some rattling good passages, and are positive proof that +discipline can be obtained without violence; and, after nearly four +months’ experience here, I believe that I am justified in expressing my +opinion, which is, that _brutality toward and the continual driving +and hazing of sailors do not conduce to order and discipline_. +Commands are not obeyed here with the precision that they were on the +“Mandalore,” and many and many a time I have seen the men make a great +show of hauling on the braces when in reality they were not pulling a +hundred pounds. Knock them over for this? No, it only makes them worse +next time, but that’s what Yankee mates generally do. If work is to be +got out of sailors, _they must be treated justly to begin with_; +if not, you will get no more out of them than out of any other class. + +The apathy and ignorance of people ashore is more remarkable than +anything else in connection with this subject of brutality to sailors. +I even know a young man who owns shares in some of our largest +square-riggers who was utterly amazed when I told him of the record +of one of his own captains. In justice to him, though, I must say +that he took no personal interest in the ships other than that they +should pay good dividends, and he really was in total ignorance of the +_modus operandi_ of American captains. But it is not so with the +vast majority of our sailing-ship-owners, who are fully aware of the +manner in which their vessels are run, and who go bail to the extent +of many hundreds of dollars for their inhuman captains when the latter +are occasionally held to answer for some particularly atrocious deed, +and who in many cases connive at the disappearance of blackguard mates +when they are seeking to escape ashore from infuriated sailors whom +these mates have half killed at sea. Cannot something be done to compel +decent treatment of our long-voyage seamen? Sailors must be ruled with +a hand of iron, for there are desperate characters among them; but, in +heaven’s name, let him who wields the power be compelled to administer +justice in his punishment of the men under him, that the disgrace +and shame which now rest upon our long-voyage sailing ships may be +removed, and that the offensive name of “Yankee hell-ship,” by which +our deep-water vessels are known to foreign sailors, may be forever +obliterated. Latitude, 13° 43′ north; longitude, 127° west. + + ++September 1+ + +Now in truth hath Disappointment come upon us and doth hover sullenly +o’erhead on sable pinions. The Trades, the lovely northeast Trades, +which we fondly imagined had reached us, did not materialize! For, +having blown fitfully for two days, driving us two degrees farther +west, they vanished, and in their stead a fresh westerly wind has +arisen, and the weather is once more sticky and showery and the heavens +are piled high-with huge wool-packs and glistening thunder-heads. But +this is not all. We are plunging into a steep, heavy swell, that is +surging down from the north in great, long, blue heaves; and it is a +grand thing to look forward and see the jib-boom now rearing up higher +and higher towards the zenith, now diving down, down into the deep +quiet hollows, as the ship tumbles heavily to the catheads into the +creamy waters. + +We had quite a lively time at dinner to-day, for the westerly wind +had smoothed the kinks out of the old man’s temper and he commenced +a jocose argument with the mate about American politics. It will be +remembered that Mr. Goggins is by birth an Englishman, but his papers +give him the right to talk about “hour constitootion,” of which he +takes advantage at every opportunity. I laughed at everything they said +to egg them on, and at length they both began to wax wroth, the mate in +a few minutes being quite wet with perspiration, so that at last all +he could say was, “Be gar’s sake, sir,” which he repeated indefinitely +like a hungry parrot asking for a cracker. Finally, though, the skipper +spoiled the fun by getting really angry, and, gazing with piercing eye +at Goggins for the space of half a minute, he utterly extinguished him +with, “Well, I guess you’d better shut up; you don’t seem to know much +about it.” Latitude, 15° north; longitude, 126° west. + + ++September 2+ + +Very strong winds from west shifting to southeast; high, northerly sea; +excessive humidity and incessant rain-squalls. These have been the +weather conditions for twelve hours, to which must be added a fall of +thirty one-hundredths of an inch in the aneroid. Yesterday afternoon +at four o’clock there were plenty of cyclonic indications round about +us: a heavy swell, suffocating humidity, a wild, ferocious look in the +enormous cumulus clouds, and a curious hot wind that at times strangely +increased to strong gusts that hummed with a dreary drone in the +rigging and then instantly subsided. Towards five o’clock the windward +horizon grew to a uniform gray, oily, and dull as lead, with an +indescribably menacing aspect in the low, greasy scud that hurried in +tattered wisps just over the mast-heads. The captain was very uneasy, +and admitted the proximity (if not of a cyclone) of one of those +furious summer northers that often sweep across the North Pacific; and +it must be remembered that we are close to the cyclonic belt which +extends out into the ocean from the Central American seaboard. + +At dusk both wind and sea had increased, and by eight o’clock we were +charging into a swell large enough to merit the term majestic, the +bowsprit rising and falling fully fifty feet, for the sea was from dead +ahead, and there was wind enough to drive the ship rapidly up the slope +of a billow and then far out into space, so that she fell full upon the +breast of the next sea with a crushing force that must have wrenched +every timber in her hull. + +At 9.30, as the captain and I were on the poop discussing the second +mate, there came a report from aloft, and there was the mizzen-royal +in ribbons, snapping and popping merrily away in the darkness. Then +the skipper cast loose his deep-sea voice so that it must surely have +reached force 12 in Beaufort’s scale, and the sail was secured in +short order. Throughout the night we labored heavily, while the seas +thundered over the bows and dashed against the forward house with +alarming fury, and then washed aft, where the water in the waist was +to be measured in feet, not in inches. Broadhead said that at times, +in the middle watch, the ship buried herself to the light-houses, and +that he hadn’t seen much more water aboard off Cape Horn. At three this +morning came another discharge from aloft, and away went four whole +cloths out of the lee side of the upper foretop-sail, and when daylight +came we had to send up a new sail. + +During the morning watch the wind shifted suddenly to southeast, and +when we went on deck it was blowing half a gale from that desirable +quarter, and the ship, with braces well rounded in, was fairly skipping +from sea to sea, save when her speed was momentarily checked by an +extra heavy one that smote her rudely full in the face and then fell +in glorious showers over the forecastle. Another fine spectacle was +afforded whenever one of the short seas, occasioned by the shift of +wind, struck the big, clumsy main-channels, when the spray shot far +into the air and was swept across the deck in snowy clouds. Altogether, +it was a scene of wonderful beauty, and we rejoiced to observe that the +dun, threatening look of the heavens had given place to dense masses +of trade-clouds and promises of plenty of clear sunshine; and if the +night was a boisterous one and the port watch had to pass the whole of +the forenoon at the pumps, our run of two hundred miles wreathed every +one’s face in jolly smiles, and “’Frisco” was heard repeatedly in the +men’s conversation. + +Writing of hurricanes awhile ago, reminds me of the pertinacity with +which the great majority of the people in our Western States allude to +their terrible tornadoes as cyclones. It would be reasonable to presume +that the inhabitants of a district subject to any peculiar atmospheric +disturbance would know and make use of the proper term for such a +phenomenon, but it seems not. Hurricane and cyclone are synonymous, and +are applied to circular storms having a diameter of from three hundred +to one thousand miles, in which the wind seldom attains a velocity of +over one hundred miles per hour, a pressure of about fifty pounds per +square foot. They have also a progressive motion varying in speed from +twenty-eight miles per hour in the United States to only eight or nine +miles in the Bay of Bengal. + +Tornadoes are also gyratory storms that progress in a straight line +at a mean speed of thirty miles an hour, but their path is almost +infinitesimal compared with the cyclone’s, for it is generally between +one thousand and six thousand feet in width and about forty miles +long, each individual storm completely dissolving and vanishing like a +thunder-squall in less than an hour. A cyclone may blow for days. + +In the fury of its rotary motion and upward suction a tornado is the +most appalling of all natural phenomena save, perhaps, the earthquake, +and the passing of one causes the most incredible and seemingly +impossible freaks. Chickens are stripped of their feathers, straws +are driven firmly into planks, and locomotives weighing fifty tons +have been over-turned without effort, the latter being possible by the +formation of a partial vacuum. Straws, however, have been driven an +eighth of an inch into a plank by an artificial blast of air moving +at the rate of one hundred and sixty miles per hour. The presence of a +vacuum is proved by the violent bursting outward of the closed windows +and shutters of a house in or near the track of a tornado. + +Many people will remember the dire results of the famous St. Louis +tornado of May, 1896, which resulted in the death of two hundred and +twenty-five persons and the loss of twelve million dollars in property +destroyed; yet there is no reason to suppose that this storm was an +unusually severe one; it simply happened to pass over a more or less +densely populated region. As usual, this tornado left behind some +remarkable mementos, the strangest of all being that a piece of pine +plank was driven by the wind head-on through the five-sixteenths inch +web of an iron girder in the approach to the St. Louis bridge! This +is a performance well known to the government Weather Bureau. Immense +blocks of sandstone set in cement were dislodged and thrown down (in +all, five hundred and eighty tons of it), together with two hundred +and eighty tons of flooring and girders, some of the latter weighing +thirteen thousand pounds each. In Lafayette Park, St. Louis, another +example of tornadic vagaries was shown by the fact that, right in the +path of the storm, surrounded closely by forest-trees which had been +wrenched bodily from the earth, stood unharmed a flimsy, straw-thatched +structure upon six light posts! + +Unfortunately, from the very violence of the wind, no accurate estimate +of the velocity of the gyratory movement of a tornado can be made, as +an anemometer would be useless, even if it were not destroyed. Experts +calculate, however, that the speed of the wind approximates five +hundred or six hundred miles per hour. At any rate, the destructive +force of a tornado is ten or perhaps twenty times that of a cyclone; +and if cyclones blew with the violence of tornadoes, the earth would +be devastated in a short while. + +At sea the tornado with its terrible cloud-funnel has its counterpart +in the water-spout; though in the latter the wind does not seem to +attain the same fury, as many vessels have passed through a water-spout +without very great damage. Two curious instances, however, are on +record of atmospheric freaks at sea; one of them was reported by the +American ship “Reaper.” She was proceeding toward Cape Horn in the +equatorial North Pacific, the day being perfectly fine and clear, save +for a few small, detached clouds, and the wind a light breeze, when she +suddenly lost all of her light sails in a blast that came apparently +out of a clear sky, while at the moment there was nothing but the +light wind on deck. Again, the ship “Sintram,” Captain Woodside, was +almost totally dismasted off the West Indies, homeward bound from +the East; the weather was fine and a four-knot breeze was blowing +on deck when the upper spars seemed to melt away, she having been +struck by a similar blast from a clear sky. Subsequently I wrote to +the forecast official at New York asking whether any such accidents +ever happened ashore; he answered that in Nebraska and Kansas similar +strong whirlwinds have been known, in perfectly clear weather, to tear +the upper portions of forest-trees completely off, including large +branches, while the leaves and twigs nearer the ground were untouched. +This indisputably proves that only a few feet mark the boundary-line +between atmosphere in a state of rest and wind of inconceivable +violence. As has been shown, such instances occur also in tornadoes, +which, of course, are nothing but immense whirlwinds. + +It is my earnest hope that the reader has not been worried by this long +meteorological dissertation, which has nothing to do with the voyage; +but as the forecasting of the weather has lately been of increasing +interest to the public, perhaps I may be pardoned for my digression. +Latitude, 17° 55′ north; longitude, 125° 30′ west. + + ++September 3+ + +It seems to be tolerably safe to say now that at last we have picked +up the northeast Trades. During yesterday afternoon the wind hauled +constantly to the northward, and at ten last night it was northeast by +north, blowing a fresh breeze; indeed, by this morning it had increased +so that we have not been able to carry the sky-sails since, and we did +another three degrees of latitude; imagine three hundred and fifty +miles of latitude here in forty-eight hours. It is very refreshing, +and even the skipper has recovered his equanimity. Up to noon to-day, +though, the weather was very showery, the fine rain blowing in level +clouds across the ship, as dense as fog. The greatest change, however, +is in the temperature, for the air has fallen 15° and the sea 10°, +so that we begin to appreciate that in thirty-six hours, if this +wind holds, we will have emerged from the torrid zone. It is quite +impossible for us to realize that in another fortnight this voyage will +probably be an event of the past. No one who has not made a long voyage +can imagine the excitement, actually the excitement, occasioned by the +speculation as to how much longer the passage will last, when only +ten days or so remain. There is continuously present such an element +of luck when solely dependent upon the wind, that you are constantly +estimating and calculating how far the Trades will extend, how the +winds will be afterward, the chances of fogs and calms on the coast, +and other equally important questions. This doesn’t mean necessarily +that you want to get ashore; it is the involuntary and irresistible +anticipation of an impending change, though my wife will probably +not regret the moment when the tow-boat gives us her line outside the +Heads. Latitude, 20° 52′ north; longitude, 126° 40′ west. + + ++September 4+ + +This was a perfectly ideal day, with brisk northeast winds, smooth sea, +cloudless sky, and a noon temperature of 72°, and 68° at midnight. +This is a very lucky chance that we are having here; we are going +well, about eight knots, and our course has been to the northward of +northwest by north, showing that the Trades are well to the eastward. + +I wonder how many people have ever seen the scale of provisions as +laid down by the United States government for the vitualling of +long-voyage ships? As I have said, the curious part of it is, though, +that no attention is ever paid to it on our ships, except under unusual +conditions. Yet it is not so very curious that no attempt is made to +observe the scale, for almost everything in connection with our sailors +and ships is performed in an irregular manner. Behold the scale. + + ---------+------+-----+-----+------+------+-----+-------+------+------ + |BREAD.|BEEF.|PORK.|FLOUR.|PEASE.|TEA. |COFFEE.|SUGAR.|WATER. + ---------+------+-----+-----+------+------+-----+-------+------+------ + |Lb. |Lbs. |Lbs. | Lb. | Pt. |Oz. | Oz. | Ozs. | Qts. + Sunday | 1 |1-1/2| | 1/2 | |1/8 | 1/2 | 2 | 3 + Monday | 1 | |1-1/4| | 1/8 |1/8 | 1/2 | 2 | 3 + Tuesday | 1 |1-1/2| | 1/2 | |1/8 | 1/2 | 2 | 3 + Wednesday| 1 | |1-1/4| | 1/8 |1/8 | 1/2 | 2 | 3 + Thursday | 1 |1-1/2| | 1/2 | |1/8 | 1/2 | 2 | 3 + Friday | 1 | |1-1/4| | 1/8 |1/8 | 1/2 | 2 | 3 + Saturday | 1 |1-1/2| | | |1/8 | 1/2 | 2 | 3 + ---------------------------------------------------------------------- + +Then comes a list of substitutes, such as molasses for sugar, potatoes +for pease, etc. Other nations also have provision scales, but they +are adhered to; foreign schemes add oatmeal, but all sailors get too +much meat; both captains and seamen say that. Our blue-water ships +have a great name for fine “grub,” which they deserved forty years +ago, but which most of them certainly do not now. A Yankee captain +has the privilege from the owners to lay in whatever sort of stores +he thinks fit (of course neither he nor the owner ever thinks of the +law); if he is a generous man, the crew are lucky; if not, it’s a +case of hunger and hustle for four or five months. As a sample of the +manner in which the food has been given out here, the men consumed an +entire barrel of molasses during the first seventeen days that we were +at sea; since then they have had none. Other articles were scattered +around in the same reckless manner, with the natural result that the +“dainties” which ought to have lasted the whole voyage had vanished at +the latitude of the Falklands; so that ever since the men have been on +pretty hard rations, and Broadhead told me that when the old man made +the show of putting all hands on government allowance it didn’t mean +anything at all. Since the stabbing, though, all the food has been +weighed out by the mate each day in full view of the sailors, eighteen +pounds of bread (_i.e._, hard-tack), so many pounds of beef, etc., +and the men themselves carry it to the cook, so that there can be no +fault-finding. As to the water, three quarts per day amounts in all to +fifty-four quarts, which is measured into a cask in the forecastle, and +the men are at liberty to give any portion of it they choose to the +cook in which to boil their beef and pork, or tea and coffee. These +three quarts, by the way, are for all purposes, drinking, cooking, and +washing, though most foremast hands are not much troubled with the +latter, except when it rains hard. Each man probably does not have more +than a quart and a half of drinking water a day, which is a truly +scanty allowance for men who are painting on a blistering deck several +hours out of the twenty-four. + +American captains profess to think that weighing out food to sailors +is very degrading, and they always add, “It’s too much like them +Britishers.” Personally I have never been able to perceive where +the indignity comes in. Food is weighed out in the navy, so why not +in the merchant service? I had it on my mind to-day to ask Captain +Scruggs which he really considered the more debasing, giving a man a +stipulated quantity of food, or knocking his teeth out with wooden or +iron implements and then kicking him into the scuppers; but I thought +it best to preserve peace rather than advance so hazardous a question. +Latitude, 23° 18′ north; longitude, 128° 40′ west. + + ++September 5+ + +Oh, what magnificent weather this is! It is just like those grand days +in the southeast Trades. Our everlasting recollections of the Pacific +Ocean, both north and south, will be of weeks of a matchless climate; +deep cobalt sky, sprinkled with little pink, cirrus clouds; a calm sea +over which shoot thousands of flying-fish in glittering flight, and +soft, enchanting breezes. “What about those two or three disagreeable +days not long ago?” says the pessimist. True, they were not ideal days; +but they only serve to show off these lovely ones in all their glorious +perfection. We have, unhappily, passed the limits of the tropics, +however, having crossed the circle of Cancer yesterday at four o’clock. + +A few minutes ago, at the pumps, Broadhead asked me, “Would you mind +telling me why you came out here in an American ship?” I told him +why,--that, having made one voyage in an Englishman, we wanted to +compare the vessels; and I also reminded him that foreign ships are +not allowed to trade between American ports. “Well, you and the lady +must have lots of courage,” said he. “Now there’s the Loch Line of +ships to Australia out of London; you ought to have gone in one o’ +them.” “Yes; MacFoy told me about them,” said I. “Well, they’re worth +all you can say in favor of ’em,” continued this American; “they’re +dandies; carry lots o’ passengers, first- and second-class and +steerage. Each ship has what they call a double crew; say a ship had +fourteen men before the mast, one o’ these would have twenty-eight, +so the whole of an ordinary ship’s crew is on deck at one time, and +not a stroke o’ work is ever done aloft after eight in the morning, +so that nothing can drop on passengers’ heads.” This may seem like +getting things down to too fine a point; but any one who has voyaged +in a sailing vessel will remember how many articles drop from men +working aloft. We have seen at least a dozen objects fall during the +voyage,--knives, paint-brushes, and serving-mallets, any one of which +dropping on a man’s head from a height of at least a hundred feet would +be very painful, not to say dangerous. + +Perhaps the most remarkable and unusual device to enable the captain of +a vessel to pocket the wages of a crew appears in a copy of a maritime +paper, which I found to-day in a bundle of the skipper’s magazines. +It was perpetrated by the master of the British ship “S----,” and +consisted in his taking a quantity of liquors of divers sorts to sea +and retailing them to the men at immense profit. An investigation at +Liverpool showed that this enterprising man had bought twenty cases +of whiskey at three dollars and a half a dozen, which he sold to the +crew at one dollar per bottle. He also had large stores of gin and beer +on board, and the amount of money that the captain must have cleared +by the various transactions may be imagined when it is mentioned that +the carpenter’s bill for liquors for one voyage footed up a total of +sixty-seven dollars, and the men testified that some of them averaged +a bottle a day. It seemed to me that the captain’s punishment was +rather light, as it consisted in suspending his certificate for three +months. Of course, this is a penalty which could not be inflicted +upon an American captain, because none of our sailing-ship-masters +has a government certificate. Our law-givers do not think that any is +necessary, though they require a stiff examination in the case of a +steam-ship-master, another sparkling example of the perfection of the +United States shipping laws. Latitude, 25° 47′ north; longitude, 130° +46′ west. + + ++September 6+ + +After breakfast this morning we trembled when we found the wind letting +go, for everything indicated a cessation in the Trades; but at ten +o’clock they freshened again, and since then we have swung handsomely +along over a light swell at seven knots. This is very gratifying, and +every day sees us a hundred and seventy-five miles nearer port. My wife +is beginning to rejoice at the prospect of fresh vegetables and fruit, +though I think I could live very comfortably on the present diet for +at least a year. I had to tell the captain to-day, though, not to have +any more stews for my sake, for I couldn’t possibly eat another one. +This is not astonishing, because, when a week out from New York, I +happened to express a desire for a stew, and on every single day since +then I have eaten some of this concoction at least once and at times +twice. Four solid, uninterrupted months of stews are apt to produce a +surfeit thereof. What was worse than anything else, though, was that +the steward, desiring to enrich the gravy, at length became addicted +to the disagreeable habit of thrusting large pieces of aged, canned +butter into each stew, after turning it out of the sauce-pan, so that +when the dish reached the table the surface of the stew glittered with +little iridescent, golden globules, that danced upon it like drops of +yellow quicksilver. Thus decorated, it was a very pleasing dish to +contemplate, though familiarity with it bred contempt. + +Every day now, particularly at supper, we enter the dining-room with +distended eyes, trying to discover some surprise in the culinary +department. Usually, however, when the covers are removed, there lie +disclosed the same old standbys,--stewed beef or mutton, cold beef and +ham, biscuits, and boiled potatoes the size of hot-house grapes, though +none the worse for that. Indeed, we went to sea with several barrels +of new Bermuda potatoes at ten dollars the barrel; this will show the +unstinted manner in which this ship was stored aft. + +Sometimes, though, we are stunned by some fantastic creation of the +Chinaman’s. Last night, for instance, when the steward whipped off +the huge pewter covers, each almost as big as an umbrella, we were +entranced by the appearance of something entirely new. In a deep +vegetable dish lay four enormous Welsh rarebits? Oh, the gladness of +that moment! What mattered it that the bread was a blood relative of +india-rubber, that the rarebits were clammy and inflexible, or that +the rind of a pineapple cheese had contributed to their manufacture? +Were they not a change, and as such to be venerated and exalted beyond +price? Therefore we helped ourselves reverently, as became so momentous +an occasion; and if the compound did produce an incalculable amount of +subsequent distress, we extended meek thanks and congratulations to the +little Cantonite in the galley. In truth, though, there is no fault of +any sort to be found with the cabin food; it is every bit as good as +when we started. + +Last evening, in the second dog-watch, the Scotch bosun came up to me +on the main-deck and asked how we were getting on. I told him, very +well indeed; and then he said, “Before we left I heard that a gentleman +and his wife were going out in the ship, and be gob I felt sorry for +them.” Good old MacFoy! He is continuously solicitous for our welfare; +and a day or two ago he came aft with a copy of Dickens’s “Christmas +Stories” which he had found in the forecastle library furnished by the +Seamen’s Friend Society, and said that he had found a fine sea story +for me to read in the book, called “The Wreck of the Golden Mary.” +It is a fact worthy of note that this rough sailor-man is the only +individual whom I have ever met who has read this delightful account +of a shipwreck off Cape Horn. The best-read man whom I ever knew said +that he had never even heard of it. In every art, though, there seem to +be one or two jewels that exist unknown even to the connoisseur. How +many musicians are there, thorough musicians though they may be, who +know the gorgeous, glorious chorus in A, _andante sostenuto_, from +Schubert’s Lazarus? Gorgeous in its tone colors, glorious in its fire +and rhythm, it is an almost unknown fragment from that transcendent +mind. Latitude, 27° 58′ north; longitude, 132° 20′ west. + + ++September 7+ + +Nothing but a faint breeze remains of the northeast Trades. In the +Pacific at this season they are generally a failure, and they carried +us through only twelve degrees of latitude. We are beginning to +appreciate how hard it is going to be to get into the land in the +latitude of San Francisco, unless we soon take the westerly winds that +are supposed to blow out here. We are now well to the westward of +’Frisco, ten degrees in fact, and it is impossible to calculate how +much farther we will have to go; old Goggins, a year ago, bound up to +Nanaimo from Acapulco, fetched over to 160° west before he got a slant +north. To-day is a great deal warmer than yesterday, with at times a +nearly glassy sea and one hundred and ten miles of the two degrees of +latitude that we made were done in the first sixteen hours. + +Last evening I had another session with the garrulous Scot. “I’ll tell +ye somethin’ about the ‘H. D. MacGregor’; she’s the toughest ship I +ever was in, though there’s one still worse. Cap’n Summers is a corker; +he’s a little man, but very broad and strong, with a fearful temper; +he’s all bruk up, though.” + +“What broke him up?” said I. + +“Jumpin’ after the men,” answered David; “he’s hardly got a sound bone +in his body; they do say his back’s broke, but I never thought it. +But I did see him smash one of his legs. He had that temper that if +he wanted to reach a man he just jumped down on top of him where he +stood. I mind one afternoon, just before we got into ’Frisco two or +three years ago, when I was bosun with him, one of the men was doin’ +somethin’ aft on the main-deck. Summers said a few words to him, and +the feller didn’t say ‘yes, sir,’ soon enough to suit him, so th’ old +man jumped right off the poop down on the main-deck, full eight feet. +He meant to lep on top o’ the sailor; but just as he jumped the ship +give a roll, and he fell into a water-barrel near by. His left leg +brought up sharp ag’in’ the chimes o’ the cask, and crack! went his +thigh-bone. Lucky for him we were only two days from port, and we fixed +him up pretty well till we got in.” + +Yesterday afternoon the top of the deck-house was painted a beautiful, +lustrous, pearly gray, and very fine it looked, glistening in the +bright sunshine. Not a drop of rain had fallen all day until fifteen +minutes after it was finished, when a light shower passed over us, +extending not five hundred yards in any direction. It lasted not one +minute, but it completely ruined the wet paint; and it was then that we +heard the gentle voice of the mate raised in blasphemous remonstrance. +Latitude, 29° 48′ north; longitude, 134° 6′ west. + + ++September 8+ + +Just as we had finished writing up our journals yesterday afternoon +there came a loud patter of rain overhead and a heavy puff from the +eastward that laid the ship well over. Still, we didn’t pay much +attention to it for some time; but, finding that we moved steadily +along without righting, I went on deck to find the ocean covered with +white-caps to the horizon, which was thick with dense, gray, very +windy-looking clouds. We were flying through the water at ten knots, +and heading up north by west true, which was very fine; but, even as +we looked, there came a slight but portentous heave from ahead that +foretold a northerly swell. And so it proved, for by 8 +P.M.+ +our progress had dwindled to six knots, as we went pitching and diving +into an ugly head-sea. It is astonishing how even a moderately heavy +swell from ahead will check the speed of a ship, even with a strong +wind blowing. A steamer will cleave right through a tall swell without +any perceptible difference in her speed, a fact proved to us once +when, in crossing the Atlantic in the “Etruria,” we encountered a +head-sea that buried the entire bows at every plunge; yet the speed +was lowered by only a quarter of a knot. Even a sailing yacht will +overcome a head-swell in a very creditable manner; but when a massive, +clumsy square-rigger runs into one, farewell to even a moderate run. +She stops at every sea for an appreciable time, till the impetus of so +ponderous a mass asserts itself and she tumbles into the next valley. +So it was with us all through the night, though we made good a fine +course north-northwest. + +A fact little known generally is that in former years there existed in +our ships what was known as a hospital tax. It was finally abandoned, +not more than fifteen years ago, and consisted in each man’s paying +forty cents a month as long as he was on board a given vessel toward a +common fund, the total sum being handed to the proper persons on the +ship’s arrival for the maintenance of the marine hospital at the port +to which she was bound, provided that such a port was of sufficient +importance to warrant an institution of this sort. I think this was a +pretty good idea, and cannot think why it was abolished. On a ship like +this one, for instance, the amount at the end of a four-months’ voyage +would be nearly forty dollars. Yet no one on board would feel the loss +of the dollar and a half that he had contributed. Latitude, 32° 7′ +north; longitude, 135° 6′ west. + + ++September 9+ + +Yesterday afternoon a sail was sighted from the fore-sky-sail-yard, +and at once threw everybody into tumult of excitement. Truly, a long +time had passed since we had beheld a vessel of any sort, for the last +time that we saw anything fashioned by man’s hand was seven weeks ago, +off the Horn. We beat this record on our first voyage, however, when +sixty-five days passed without our sighting a vessel. The ship “I. F. +Chapman,” however, arrived at New York from Manila shortly before we +sailed, having been at sea one hundred and twenty-five days, and during +all that time not a single craft of any description sailed into her +ken! + +At five o’clock the upper sails of our new friend were in sight from +the deck, and I walked to the break of the poop, where the mate was, to +ask his opinion of her. He was extremely pompous, and talked with such +assurance that you would suppose he had just come off the stranger. +She had not risen to her upper topsails when Mr. Goggins said, “Ho! +I know ’er; she’s a barkentine that trades between San Francisco +and the Hawaiian Islands!” (I have never met a captain or mate who +said Sandwich Islands.) This was to exhibit his infinite knowledge +of the Pacific coast. Now, when hull down, I make it a rule never to +contradict a sailor when he gives an opinion as to how a square-rigger +is sailing, whether on or off the wind, or what her precise rig is; +few objects are more puzzling, even to an experienced eye. But on this +occasion I had a pair of very excellent glasses on the vessel, and +suggested that she was either a bark or a ship steering by the wind. +“Naw, naw,” shouted the mate, with a backward sweep of his arm; “she’s +a barkentine, a-runnin’ free.” An hour later it proved to be a British +ship close-hauled on the port tack, standing to the eastward. The mate +was overwhelmed with chagrin, but his cup of misery was not yet full, +for when the old man went on deck last night at ten, the moon being +very bright, he asked him whether the ship was still in sight, to which +the mate answered, “She’s not, sir.” “Then what’s that?” asked the +skipper, pointing under the spanker. There, on the quarter, dim, but in +plain view, was the handsome stranger, and she had gone around on our +tack. + +Last evening we witnessed a sunset that was the most impressive of +the whole voyage. An hour before the sun disappeared we noticed great +cumulo-nimbus clouds marshalling themselves in the west, the horizon +then being veiled in a curious, diaphanous mist. When we came up +from supper, though, the sun had nearly reached the sea-rim, and for +ten minutes we were the enchanted spectators of most exquisite cloud +scenery. High up toward the zenith two ranges of heavy, gloomy cloud +mountains were reared, peak on peak, forming in themselves a scene +of remarkable grandeur, and right between these purple ramparts, and +just then touching the horizon, lay the great, blazing globe of fire, +edging the immense vapory masses with a fringe as of living flame +and transmuting the clouds into glowing pictures of the Delectable +Mountains, more beautiful than artist ever conceived, with a suggestion +of the Celestial City itself in the surpassing glory of the moment. As +Handel said when composing the “Messiah,” “I did think that I did see +all heaven before me, and the great God Himself.” The entire spectacle +was visible through the thin mist, now changed into a veil of radiant +bronze, putting a finishing touch upon a scene which, for magnificence +of coloring and stately splendor, we have never seen equalled. + +No sooner had the orb of day vanished than out soared the moon from +behind a sable cloud and a night of ineffable peace and purity +followed, with now and then a weird effect produced by a guny floating +slowly across the moon’s face, with the appearance of a gigantic, +prehistoric bat. Oh, how superb Nature is when viewed thus from the +deck of a sailing ship! How can a man deny God at such moments as +these? How can he say that he is lonely when he is surrounded by such +wonderful memorials of His earthly magnificence? Latitude, 34° 5′ +north; longitude, 137° 14′ west. + + ++September 10+ + +We can stand but very little more of this northerly wind, for we are +getting very anxious to go on the other tack. Last night and this +morning the wind was very unsteady, and we alternately broke off to +west-northwest and came up to northwest by north. It would be useless +to tack ship at long as we can hold as good a course as the former, for +we would have to make a little southing on the other leg. By to-morrow +we will probably be in the latitude of our destination, though a +thousand miles west of it, and the skipper intimates that he will then +let her come round whether or no. + +This morning, it being the first occasion for a long while, we had +a brace of fresh eggs for breakfast, which when poached were so +indescribably delicious that the memory of them lingered long and +sweetly in the palate. It is only about once in three weeks that our +barren, emaciated hens honor us in this fashion, and when they do, our +gratitude is boundless. Ordinarily, my wife’s breakfast consists of +fresh, crisp soda biscuit, a boiled potato, and a cup of cocoa; my own +comprising soda biscuit, potatoes, jam, and tepid water. It is a matter +of surprise to every one who has experienced a lack of ice how readily +one becomes accustomed to being without it; by the seventh or eighth +day the desire for iced water has passed entirely away and doesn’t +return except in case of illness. People generally regard a man who +refuses any of the customary matutinal beverages with the most extreme +astonishment; when he declines coffee, they open their eyes; when he +refuses tea, they begin to murmur; and when he also denies cocoa, they +drop everything and look intently at him, as though they expected to +discover some visible proof of his abstinence. “Why, but your health,” +these people cry; “every one needs something hot in the morning.” This +is quite false, even in winter weather, as anyone can prove to one’s +own satisfaction by shunning so strong a stimulant as coffee for a +fortnight and taking only water at breakfast; nearly everybody would +feel great benefit from such a course in less than a week. + +One would think that long-voyage ship-masters would grow to detest salt +and dried meats and tinned vegetables, but they do not; and Captain +Scruggs affirms that after one or two good “feeds” of fresh meat ashore +after every voyage he wants to return to his salt beef; and I have yet +to see the captain or mate who preferred the finest pressed tongue and +canned corned beef to ordinary salt junk; they cling to it with a truly +wonderful pertinacity. + +The captain detailed to us last evening the ingenious method of loading +coal at Newcastle, Australia. A ship there hauls in close to the pier, +along the edge of which extends a railway track. A train of coal-cars +is then backed down on the wharf, each car holding five tons. They are +then uncoupled, a hydraulic crane lifts each one silently from the +track, swings it over a given hatch, the bottom drops automatically, +precipitating the coal into the hold, and the car is then swung back +again and placed on the rails, and another takes its place. The same +method is now or was once employed at Newport, Wales. + +In the United States chutes are in general favor for loading colliers, +especially in the coastwise trade, which is conducted by means of +fore-and-aft schooners, some of which are as large as many ships. The +“W. B. Palmer,” for instance, registers about two thousand tons, with a +carrying capacity of thirty-five hundred, equal to that of the “Hosea +Higgins,” while several range well over fifteen hundred registered +tons. In spite of the encroachments of steam, these mammoth schooners +seem to more than hold their own, as the fleet is constantly being +increased. Ten years ago a vessel like the “Governor Ames,” or any +of the Randalls, paid from twenty to twenty-five per cent., though +the profits are now probably somewhat reduced. The “Ames” has loaded +twenty-five hundred tons of coal at Norfolk in nine hours, which is the +best work on record, as this included trimming, and everything else, +all ready for sea. This phenomenal speed was attained by simultaneously +working the four hatches, rivers of coal continuously sliding into the +hold through the chutes. At Aden and Port Said the steamers are coaled +entirely by hand in quite an interesting manner: A lighter of coal +is secured alongside a steamer, aboard of which is a swarm of black +men, mostly Kroumen, each with a shallow, wicker basket as large as +a dish-pan. As soon as the lighter is made fast two cargo ports are +opened in the steamer’s hull, one forward and one abaft the bunkers. +The men then fill their baskets, which they carry upon their heads, and +march in single file through the forward port, empty their baskets as +they pass the bunkers without pausing, and issue from the after-opening +into the lighter, where a freshly-filled basket awaits each. So great +is the number of men that a solid black stream passes through the +steamer; and though each basket holds but twenty pounds of coal, it is +loaded into the bunkers at the rate of one hundred tons per hour. On +our return from India in a P. and O. steamer through the Red Sea we +coaled thus at Aden, by electric light; the weather was drizzly (itself +a curiosity), and when the moisture condensed on the naked, sooty backs +of the Kroumen, they appeared as though clad in a mail of sparkling +jet; and as they maintained a dismal chant throughout the process, the +whole scene resembled a picture from the land of gnomes and pixies. +Latitude, 35° 50′ north; longitude, 139° 20′ west. + + ++September 11+ + +The winter of our discontent is now at its height. Vainly do we +endeavor to make easting; we cannot, for the wind for a long time has +been at northeast instead of between north and west, as it should +be. At four this morning, exasperated beyond endurance, I heard the +skipper growl to the mate, “We’ll let her go round, anyway; maybe we’ll +fetch Cape San Lucas.” We did make good an easterly course for a while, +but at five we broke off to east-southeast, which, with the variation, +was southeast three-quarters east, a preposterous course; so we went +around again at eight, and are still pegging away on the starboard +tack, making good north by west, and only twenty miles south of ’Frisco. + +Every opportunity the dour Scot has for conversation now he embraces. +At seven last evening, sitting on the main-hatch, he said, “I’ll bet +you never heard what ‘Long John’ (Pettersen) said to the mate one night +off Cape Horn; ’twas that night when we had the worst snow-squalls. I +dunno what the row was about, but Mr. Goggins called John up on the +poop and began to blackguard him; then he let him have it once or twice +in the face about as hard as I ever saw, and was just goin’ to kick him +down the poop-ladder, when down jumps Long John on the main-deck, turns +around and yells, ‘You come down here and I’ll break yer ---- ---- +neck!’ and he’d ’a done it, too. What did Mr. Goggins do? Walked aft +and looked into the binnacle. ‘That settles you in my mind, me buck,’ +says I to meself. I don’t believe he had a right to hit John, for, if I +do say so, he’s the willingest sailor I ever had to do with; but when +John dared him to come down off the poop---- Well, that’s the sort o’ +stuff the mate’s made of; he hasn’t got the sand of a worm. But look, +sir, I want to tell ye somethin’ more about the Australian packets. +The best and finest voyage I ever had in all me life was in one o’ +those ships, the ‘Loch Rannoch.’” (I love to hear MacFoy roll out his +sonorous Scottish names.) “We had a hundred and eighteen passengers, +most o’ them, of course, in the ’tween-decks, which was fitted up wi’ +bunks for ’em. Oh! but we had the fun that passage, though the rules +are strict, just like in the navy, and well they need be. The emigrants +can’t go either forrad or aft o’ certain limits, all lights are out at +eight in the evenin’, no smokin’ after that hour, and in heavy weather +none o’ them are allowed on deck. In the Southern Ocean, runnin’ our +eastin’ down, the hatches were battened for two weeks, and all the +air the people got was thro’ the ventilators. When such emigrants get +to Melbourne they have to report at Government House, and things are +fixed so they can pay their passage-money in instalments. The men are +generally a pretty decent, well-conducted lot; but the women,--oh, +Lord! the women! Some o’ them’s amazons, and that’s a fact. I remember +one that we had on board had the whole ship in a hurrah till one day +Cap’n Skene ordered her aft to talk to her. I mind the time well: the +cap’n, a fat, short, little man in blue and brass buttons wi’ podges +on his shoulders, as vain as a turkey, but a good seaman, was talkin’ +to a couple o’ first-class passengers when this lassie was led aft, +and he turned with a frown to size her up like. ‘Well, mutton-face, +who’re ye lookin’ at?’ says she; and then, without givin’ him time for +a word, she bawled at him, ‘D’ye know what I think o’ you? You’re no +more good than a hoot down a dumb-waiter shaft.’ She said she was no +bloomin’ sailor, and she’d have the run o’ the ship if she liked; and, +will you believe it, they had to put the irons on her, she got that +bad. We used to have great singin’ in the dog-watches. Man, ’twould ha’ +done yer heart good to see us sailors a-sittin’ on the forecastle-head, +thirty of us, and pretty soon we’d start a chanty and keep it up for +ten minutes; and no sooner would we stop than a score of emigrants +amidships would take it up, the women’s and men’s voices soundin’ +fine together, till it was most as good as a concert. You’d better +believe it, though, that it takes strict discipline to keep a hundred +and fifty people in order for three months.” + +“See here, MacFoy,” said I, when he had finished. “I want you to answer +me a straight question; is this a hard ship on the men?” + +“Why, no, of course it’s not,” he answered. + +“Well, Mr. Rarx told me that once, but I didn’t know whether to believe +him or not,” said I. + +“I can just tell you, she’s the quietest Yankee ship _I_ ever +sailed in,” observed David; “why, there’s been no blood flyin’ at all +to amount to much. The men can’t make it out; there hasn’t one o’ +them been clouted now goin’ on three weeks. But I can tell you why it +is; it’s all on account o’ you and your wife. The old man won’t let +out before ye, but I’ve often seen him hold on tight to himself and +just swear instead o’ knockin’ the feller end-wise. Yes, Mr. Rarx was +right when he told ye this was an easy ship.” Latitude, 37° 18′ north; +longitude, 139° 50′ west. + + ++September 12+ + +Hurrah for California! Hurrah for the north wind! Our bowsprit is at +last pointing towards the brown crags of the Golden Gate. At the change +of the watch at midnight we heard the captain sing out, “All hands on +deck; tack ship.” A few moments later came “Put your hellum down”; and +a moment afterward he called out “Hellum’s a-lee”; yet another minute +or two and “Maintop-sail haul” split the air. A dead silence followed +as the men cast off the braces, and then the heavy yards clattered +noisily around, followed by the agreeable sound of ropes running over +patent sheaves (always pronounced shivs); and finally, “Let go and +haul” went ringing forward, the head-yards swung round, and in ten +minutes more the ship was braced up on the port tack, heading somewhat +to the northward of east. All continued to go well, and we are now +doing seven knots. + +At 10.30 this +A.M.+, as we were watching the mate reeve a new +log-line on the “cherub,” I heard Kelly at the wheel say “Sst, sst,” +and looking where he pointed, lo! a sail appeared well above the +horizon on the lee bow. The glasses resolved her into a three-masted +fore-and-aft schooner on the starboard tack; and we presently perceived +that she was rigged with pole-masts and a spike bowsprit, being the +first vessel of the sort I ever saw. It makes a very serviceable +rig, not so picturesque as fidded topmasts and slender jib-boom, but +powerful and able looking, which count for more in a seaman’s eye than +æsthetic beauty. + +Before long it became apparent that if neither of us shifted the helm +there would be a collision; and as we were on the port tack, we should +be the one to alter our course; but then the other vessel was only +a schooner, so this would never enter the mind of a square-rigger +skipper. Sure enough, although the other had the right of way, she +shifted her wheel and we passed across her bows, not more than a +cable’s length away. She was the “Sequoia,” of San Francisco, three +hundred and twenty-five tons, and was probably bound up to Puget +Sound from a southern Californian port. Observe how hard it is to +make northing as well as easting here at this season, when vessels +are obliged to stand off shore twenty degrees in order to reach up, +and the “Sequoia” hadn’t tacked ship yet to fetch in. I never before +saw a fore-and-aft schooner a thousand miles off shore, though there +are small two-masters that trade between Newfoundland and Spain, and +between Boston and the Bight of Benin. + +As we passed the “Sequoia,” all hands aboard of her crowded to the side +to see us; and we probably made a splendid picture as we swept by, only +two or three hundred yards away, under all possible canvas. The captain +and mate declared that her name was pronounced “Sequina”; ship-masters +often have the most remarkable pronunciations even for well-known ports +and landmarks, and they cling to them with dogged tenacity. + +Last night we had another new dish for supper,--cream toast. This +sounds odd, I expect, but it was simply delicious; it is true that, +as in the case of the rarebits the other evening, the bread was not +all that could be desired; but by using _unsweetened_ condensed +Swiss cream, thinned a little with water, it proved to be a most savory +dish, though an expensive one for the ship, as an entire can has to be +used each time. In truth, if made thus, it tastes far better than if +fresh milk is used, as the great fault with ordinary milk toast lies in +its flatness and insipidity; but the Swiss cream, being very rich and +perfectly pure, is eminently adapted to this purpose. It sticks in my +mind that this ought to be a hint for housewives. + +Already we have begun to estimate precisely when we will reach port; if +we do it in six days, or by next Saturday, it will mean only a hundred +and fifty miles a day, or six and a half per hour, which we should do +without trouble if we do not fall to leeward of the Farallones. + +Mr. Rarx is still very feeble, and will evidently have to be carried +ashore. Latitude, 38° 10′ north; longitude, 139° 10′ west. + + ++September 13+ + +A magnificent day, though not quite so much wind as we would like to +have. Up to ten this morning we did passably well, but since then it +has been pretty light, though there is a bank of wool-packs rising +in the west, foretelling more wind from that desirable quarter. We +made three degrees of departure, and to our chagrin, not to say +consternation, fifty-eight miles of southing; this latter must be due, +we think, to an error in our previous dead reckoning, as we hadn’t +had the sun for two days, and the currents here are often strong. A +line drawn from yesterday’s alleged noon position to that of to-day +passes directly over the reputed Reed Rocks; but as we are by no means +sure of yesterday’s work, we cannot on that account positively deny +their existence. They were first reported about fifty years ago by one +Reed, an American mariner; but as the British admiralty charts do not +acknowledge the presence of the rocks, and as our own charts have D +marked beneath them, meaning doubtful, it is probable that, if they +ever did exist, they have now disappeared. + +It is worthy of mention that the total cost of running and maintaining +a ship like the “Hosea Higgins” for one year amounts to an average of +twenty-five thousand dollars. In New York alone the bills that Captain +Scruggs had to pay before we went to sea amounted to almost fifteen +thousand dollars, though this was a somewhat excessive amount, owing +to the putting in of a new bowsprit and fore lower mast, which, with +the rigger’s bill, footed up a total of two thousand dollars. Here is +a list of the accounts rendered: Riggers, stores, stevedore, foremast, +blacksmith, wharfage, advance to men, ship-chandler, sail-maker, +tow-boat, pilot, shipwright, tonnage dues, butcher (fresh meat). + +In San Francisco there will be an equally heavy account, as a new +mizzen lower mast will be shipped there; and when the “Higgins” +arrives back at New York she will have to be thoroughly overhauled and +repaired, being of the age of fifteen years. Wooden vessels are classed +A 1 for that period and no longer without a complete renovation, and +she is then reclassed; iron vessels are rated A 1 for a much longer +period. The list of firms above enumerated would not be complete, +however, without mentioning the cooper’s bill. This is sometimes quite +large for repairs made to cases, barrels, etc., on account of damage +sustained while loading, at sea, or discharging. Goods must always be +delivered in first-rate condition. Yet, in spite of the heavy running +expenses, this ship averages fifteen and sixteen per cent. profit; +and there is one very large iron four-masted ship, belonging to the +keenest ship-owner in New York, which regularly pays a twenty per +cent. annual dividend. Nearly all American sailing ships pay well; but +the greatest profits that I know of in late years have been made by a +British eleven-knot tramp steamer, whose name I cannot remember. This +vessel for the last four years has paid the owners an average annual +profit of thirty-four per cent. Much of this is, of course, due to the +vessel’s happening to strike the various markets at exactly the right +time, though there must be a good, sharp business head to the concern +to achieve such an astonishing result. It is said, however, that the +majority of British sailing ships are not good money-makers. Latitude, +37° 12′ north; longitude, 136° 15′ west. + + ++September 14+ + +A magnificent breeze that has driven us along at nearly nine knots has +blown steadily from the north-northeast for twenty-four hours, giving +us an easterly course by compass. But, alas! the point and a half of +variation and another half-point of leeway force us to steer about +east-southeast true. We made a whole degree of southing in consequence, +and are now ninety miles south of ’Frisco Heads. If we have to tack +ship it will be a piece of outrageous luck; and if the ship doesn’t +come up three points by noon to-morrow, that’s just what we will have +to do. + +Last Sunday, as I was talking to some of the men forward, Broadhead +spoke of the Yellowstone Park, and he chanced to mention that a +friend of his had spent his honeymoon in that delectable locality, +adding that, of course, everything looked particularly rosy even for +the Yellowstone. Conversation then changed, when all at once I found +the eyes of Jimmie Rumps fixed upon me, and a moment later he said, +wistfully and earnestly, “I should think it must be just grand to go +on a honeymoon.” Rumps, it might be added, would make an excellent +cabin-boy on a yacht; but as bosun of a large ship, it would be +difficult to find one more thoroughly incompetent than he is. There are +at least a dozen of the men before the mast who are far better sailors +than he, and seamanship is a _sine qua non_ in a bosun as well as +in a second mate. + +Another speech of one of the men afforded us a little amusement this +forenoon. As my wife stepped to the binnacle to learn the course, the +old man having just gone below with his sextant, Paddy, the merry, +humorous young Irishman, was steering; but instead of his usual jolly +smile, his face indicated the most extreme dejection. So, to cheer him +up, my wife nodded to him and remarked, “We’ll soon be in, Paddy.” +“Yes, mum, I know,” he replied, “but I got gum-boils now”; to show that +variety had been vouchsafed him in his afflictions, as he has only just +recovered from the worst sea-boils in the ship. + +It may not be very widely known that in the United States there are +several competent women ship-mistresses, as I suppose they ought to +be called. I don’t mean women who understand more or less about the +handling of vessels, but those who are entirely capable and have +received their certificates for steamers from the government. The +first woman to pass the examination in this country was a Mrs. George +Miller, of New Orleans, and it was the late Justice Folger, at the time +Secretary of the Treasury, who, after mature deliberation, decided that +a woman could legally, if she passed the severe examination necessary +to command a steam-vessel, assume the responsible position of captain. +Since then several women in the United States have obtained master’s +licenses and have demonstrated their ability to handle steamers; but +the woman-captain of a square-rigger has not yet appeared on the +horizon, though many long-voyage captains’ wives are almost, if not +quite, as capable navigators and seamen as their husbands. + +The British Board of Trade, however, has positively refused to allow a +member of the gentler sex to appear before it for examination. A test +case recently came up when the daughter of an English marquess applied +to that institution for master’s papers. This lady pointed out that she +simply desired to command her own yacht, which she was quite capable of +doing, and did not wish to have anything to do with any other vessel; +but the Board of Trade’s answer to her application was that it would +not permit a woman to be examined for a master’s certificate, as the +word master implicitly specified that men alone were eligible. Shortly +afterward the marquess’s daughter married an Irish merchant captain, +and at the present time is no doubt ably assisting her husband in +the navigation of the splendid ship which he has the good fortune to +command. Latitude, 36° 21′ north; longitude, 132° 30′ west. + + ++September 15+ + +This is the second of my wife’s birthdays that we have passed at +sea, as three years ago we celebrated one in the “Mandalore” in +37° south, 16° east; and to commemorate this occasion we have had +very strong northerly winds, with heavy puffs, a clear sky, and a +rough but magnificent sea, with the ship bounding through it under +the maintop-gallant-sail, bursting the spray high up to windward in +drenching showers as she shoulders her way through the great creaming +billows. How superb and proud they look, their snow-white, downy crests +standing pompously forth against the azure sky, with intervening +valleys of that wonderful blue which imparts such a fascination to the +scene! We love nothing better than to pick out a particularly tall sea +when it is still a quarter of a mile away on the bow. On it comes, as +resistless as time; now hidden as the ship drops into a hollow, now +soaring above its fellows as some grand, snowy peak towers over its +pine-clad neighbors. Nearer and yet nearer it approaches, challenging +combat as it comes, the vessel half advancing to meet it. And now it +is right alongside, and hangs menacingly thirty feet above the ship, +and the spray scattered from its glistening summit flies overhead in a +swirling cloud, and a rainbow spans for an instant the streaming decks. +It seems impossible that the vessel can clear the swift rush of the +great billow; but just as it gathers itself for the assault the ship, +with a heavy lurch to leeward, presents a high, copper-sheathed wall to +the seething flood, and before you know it you have passed the crest of +the huge wave and are sliding smoothly and noiselessly into the quiet +valley beyond. + +We have just cause for rejoicing, too, for the ship has come up two +whole points since midnight, and we are now steering east-northeast by +compass; two more points to the northward and we can fetch to windward +of the Farallones. The captain seems wonderfully positive that we will +fetch in all right, and when he expresses himself so surely, which he +seldom does, we always feel pretty certain of the chances being in our +favor. + +I haven’t mentioned Mr. Rarx for some time. He has not been doing at +all well, eats hardly six ounces of food a day, and he has withered +away to a wraith of his former self; an idea of this may be gained +from the captain’s estimate that he has lost at least forty pounds. +The impression grows that Louis will be cleared in court, this opinion +being held even by the skipper, for the men say that the second mate +knocked Karl down with a maul besides the block, and there are three +others who can bring damaging evidence against Mr. Rarx. But I am very +much afraid that the mellifluous voices of the crimps when they swarm +aboard in San Francisco harbor will exercise a somewhat different +influence upon their opinions. I should like to see a ship-master with +the courage to prevent the entrance of these crimps into his vessel; +but if he did so and had them all kicked over the side into the harbor, +as they ought to be, what a time this ship-master would have getting a +crew together when he was next ready for sea! For not a boarding-master +in the city would let him have a man. + +If sailors would only hold together when they get ashore and testify +against the bad treatment that they get at sea, nine-tenths of the +villains who officer our deep-water-men would now be contemplating +existence behind grated windows. If we had any doubts as to this +particular ship’s being worse in its treatment of the men than the +average Yankee, they were further dispelled by a remark of Jack +Nickalls, an unobtrusive little sailor, and a good one: “This ship’s a +peach compared to them wot I’ve been in.” Louis is fairly cheerful and +conducts himself remarkably well. Latitude 36° 1′ north; longitude, +128° 20′ west. + + ++September 16+ + +To our very great astonishment, the wind increased very rapidly +yesterday afternoon, and by three o’clock it was blowing a strong +gale from the northward, with a cloudless sky. Several exciting +incidents marked the day, the first of which occurred at the above +hour. I had just gone on deck when suddenly there was a most tremendous +clatter forward, and in another second down fell the big maintop-mast +stay-sail, hanging outboard so as to just touch the water, as, of +course, it was blown to leeward by the gale. From beyond the head, +which was that part that hung down, extended about six feet of the +heavy iron wire stay which had parted, and there instantly began the +most terrible slatting that I have ever heard or seen. It was nothing +short of fearful. There was a heavy sea running, and as the ship would +lay far over every few moments the wind would gather up the sail, +blow it out horizontally to leeward, and then jerk it back and forth, +up and down, seemingly in every direction at the same instant, with +appalling fury, the iron wire dashing now against the main-backstays, +now against the bulwarks, now full into the bunt of the main-sail, with +a force that was awful and made you hold your breath as the weapon was +flung against the backstays with the crack of a pistol. I have seen +slatting before when the gear of large racing yachts carried away; but +it was not to be spoken of in the same breath with that of to-day. It +was as if the power of the universe was concentrated in the twisting, +bounding, whirling stay-sail; and the sailors stood aghast, for it was +certain death to approach. + +The captain was asleep when the stay parted, but he was on deck in +a few seconds, and instantly ordered the helm hard up, so as to get +the ship before the wind and prevent further destruction, for the +main-rigging couldn’t have stood the thrashing much longer. Slowly +the ship paid off, but five minutes passed until she was running free +before the big, smoking seas, for we had started nothing, but had +simply put the helm up. Meanwhile the slashing continued, and at last +the wire burst through the main-sail and made a gaping rent in the +after-leech. How the whole lee side of the sail escaped is marvellous; +but when we were dead before the wind four hands simultaneously seized +the heaving sail, and by heroic work finally got it muzzled after +fifteen minutes of most courageous efforts. + +No sooner was it secured and the ship on her course again than the +old man sung out, “Clew up the main-t’-ga’nt-s’l.” There was a rush +to the clew-lines and halliards; but somebody slacked away something +too quickly for the zephyr that was whispering aloft, for there came a +crackling report, and the top-gallant-sail at once was transformed into +canvas pennants. A varied assortment of profanity tinged the atmosphere +for quite half an hour, as a new sail had to be bent, and no one who +has not seen a sail shifted in a gale of wind can form any true idea of +the hard labor entailed in the process. So, leaving the uninitiated to +picture it as well as he can, I must go on to describe something that +occurred which more nearly concerned ourselves. + +My wife and I were in our room a few minutes later discussing the +stay-sail business, when, without warning, there came a very great +lurch, and then the booming of mighty waters smote our ears as a +whooping sea fell thundering directly on the poop. For a moment we were +speechless as the water rushed in our windows, in spite of this being +the lee side, drenching every object in the room; but we were called to +our senses mighty suddenly by the volume of water that came cascading +down the companion-way and gushing inches deep into our room. But, +alas! what could we do? Such a thing happens in a second, and by the +time that we had slammed the door and shutters there was no more water +to come in and the damage was wrought. Personally we did not suffer +extensively, but the after-cabin was a rare sight. The skipper’s room +was on the weather-side, and as the ship heeled far over to the sea, +everything movable shot out into the cabin, and when we first saw it +books, magazines, balls of twine, slippers, shoes, ocean directories, +charts, dividers, rulers, cigars, and an incredible number of old San +Franciscan newspapers, every letter of which we have read, including +the advertisements, were washing about in half a foot of brine. An +idea of the volume of water may be gained when it is said that the +steward and Sammie were an hour and a half in baling it out with +buckets. Fortunately, the weather windows were protected by the solid +wooden shutters which had just been closed; but the companion door had +been left open, and this did nearly all the damage. Not even when the +forward skylight was stove off the river Plate was there so much water +below, and it was really an alarming thing to see so much ocean flowing +down the companion-stairs. + +But all these little inconveniences were as nothing when compared with +the fact that the gale delayed us seriously and that the sea kept +knocking us off, though the wind was steady at north-northwest; so +that, in spite of it, we did not make good a better course than east +by north and went through the water very slowly, as we had to hold her +well up to make even one point of northing. + +By ten this +A.M.+, however, the wind had so moderated that +the top-gallant-sails were set, but we began then to break off to the +southward of east, and at one o’clock we wore ship and are now on the +starboard tack, heading up northwest by north. The point to be avoided +at all hazards is not to fall off to the southward any more; never mind +going back into the Pacific a little if you can make some northing. Our +destination is distant only a hundred and fifty miles, and the captain +has until Saturday to save his record of one hundred and thirty days. +Latitude, 36° 28′ north; longitude, 125° 30′ west. + + ++September 17+ + +Instead of being now within sight of the coast, lo! we are becalmed +within twenty miles of where we were at noon yesterday. It is difficult +to imagine anything more exasperating than to lie idly upon the surface +of a glassy ocean, only a little more than a hundred miles from the +port for which you have been striving for four months. I wouldn’t care +if the voyage were to be several weeks longer, but it is trying for all +hands to thus lie becalmed so near the haven. Off the Hooghly, we were +similarly tortured with light winds for several days. + +When we went on deck this morning the weather was such that we +might well have conceived ourselves down between the Trades, for we +apparently floated in oil, and the big squares of canvas depended in +writhing folds from the lofty yards. Not even the smallest clouds +spattered the blue heavens, but a thin haze covered the sea and rose +above the horizon some fifteen degrees or so, a semi-transparent +curtain of a deep orange, beautiful to behold, but of ill omen, as it +was highly improbable that anything worthy the name of breeze would +come from anywhere with such conditions. + +Astern, among the dark, spiral water-funnels floated half a dozen +gunies, and we thought that perhaps we could capture one; therefore +the skipper rigged a small hook baited with bacon-rind to a thin line +and dropped it overboard. In a few minutes one took the bait; and, +giving the line a jerk, he hooked the creature in the upper part of the +bill and hauled him through the water and up over the stern. This bird +made but little resistance, and formed a strong contrast to the fierce +struggles of an albatross under similar conditions. When finally +deposited upon the deck, he seemed to be about the size of a swan as to +body, but his wings were very long, the alar extent being eight feet, +or only three or four feet less than an average albatross. Like the +latter, a guny can inflict a very severe wound with his bill, and it is +necessary to have a care for your calves as you pass by. We endeavored +to take some photographs of the big bird, but he would insist upon +continual motion, and finally the wretched beast cast up the contents +of his stomach on the deck, after the manner of all sea-fowl. Then the +captain brought up the Maltese cat, who entertains a very lofty opinion +of itself and who is in the habit of valiantly putting the chickens to +flight; he was apparently stunned, though, when confronted with the +great bird, and when the latter opened a beak in which the whole of +Tommie’s head might have rested, his tail thickened and he sped him +away. As it was useless then to keep the guny any longer on board, the +skipper grasped him dexterously by the tip of one wing and threw him +over the side; whereupon catching himself before he touched the water, +he flew off with a joyous scream to rejoin his comrades, and no doubt +relate to them his wonderful adventures. Latitude, 36° 35′ north; +longitude, 125° 50′ west. + + ++September 18+ + +Becalmed, sixty-five miles from the Farallones! It is a dismal fact +that although we had a light, fair wind all last night, it let go at +nine this morning, and since then we have been weltering in a light +swell from the northward, with the sea at times like blue ice. Such +a dead calm was it that my wife and I played cards the greater part +of the morning on deck. At 7 +A.M.+ the haze that shrouded the +sea commenced to melt under the hot sun, and two ships were disclosed +to our vision, one to port, the other to starboard. The former was a +three-master of about two thousand tons, while the other was a very +large, full-rigged, four-masted ship--that is, square-rigged on all the +masts--of fully twenty-eight hundred tons. Both were metal vessels, and +made a fine picture as they gracefully topped the easy swell. They were +bound to the southward, and therefore have all their troubles before +them. + +The poor old man has broken his record, and we feel very sorry for +him; and, indeed, it is a very fine thing for a captain to be able to +say that never, upon any voyage, in any part of the world, has he been +more than one hundred and thirty days at sea. He takes this voyage very +philosophically, which is a remarkable fact, and says that no matter +how fine a man’s record may be, it’s only necessary to keep on and +it will at last be broken. I divided up some articles of old clothes +among the men this afternoon, and their pleasure as they drew lots +for the various pieces, which they made no attempt to conceal, was +delightful to see. We, ourselves, are all packed up ready to go ashore +whenever the wind will allow us; it is very satisfactory to get this +done, for we always travel with an altogether unnecessary quantity of +impedimenta, and it is a matter of considerable skill to compress all +the things into two or three trunks. + +While we were looking at the smaller of those two ships this morning +the captain said that she looked like the British ship “Eurydice,” +the present holder of the record passage across the North Pacific, +she having made the voyage from Yokohama to Port Townsend in the +wonderfully fast time of nineteen days. With this voyage compare those +of two other British square-riggers, the “Clan Macfarlane” and the +“Matterhorn”; neither is a slow ship, yet the former was one hundred +and one days sailing from Hong-Kong to San Francisco, and the latter +one hundred and fourteen between the same ports. + +The captain is beginning to wonder how difficult it is going to be for +him to get a crew in ’Frisco when he is ready for sea again; he is +worrying a good deal over it, for when we sailed from New York sailors +were so scarce in San Francisco that the big ships “Forfarshire” and +“Kensington” went to sea with crews half of which were ranch hands, who +had been rounded up by the crimps. Latitude, 37° 11′ north; longitude, +124° 12′ west. + + ++September 19+ + +At half-past six this morning there was a great rapping and thumping +on our door, and Captain Scruggs cried, “If you want to see the +Faralleeones you’d better come on deck.” Ten minutes later we emerged +from the companion-way, but at first could see nothing at all for +a chilly fog that lay upon the water, which had, during the night, +changed to the muddy green of soundings. By dint of perseverance, +though, we saw a large, dark mass loom gradually up until we could +plainly discern the brown, sterile cones of the Farallones, which lie +about twenty-five miles west of San Francisco Heads. Many persons have +been puzzled to know why it is that the majority of the Pacific coast +population pronounce the word as though it was spelled Fa-ra-lee-owns. +The explanation of it seems to me to be a corruption of the Spanish +pronunciation Fa-ralyo-nes, as, of course, the double l in that +language has the sound of y. The same can be said of Mollendo, an +important Peruvian port in 17° south; for Californians who are not +especially erudite call the place Mol-ly-en-do, from the Spanish +Mol-yen-do. It will be perceived how readily careless persons could +fall into the way of putting an extra syllable in names which contain +the double l, from hearing Mexicans and South Americans pronounce the +words, which, of course, they do correctly. + +As we had packed all of our valises, etc., the night before, there was +nothing for us to do but to anticipate with pleasurable excitement +the entrance into the Golden Gate, for the captain assured us that by +eleven o’clock there wouldn’t be a vestige of fog left; this being a +peculiarity of the coast climate. Sure enough, at ten the mists began +to disperse and a bright glare overhead indicated an impending flood of +sunshine. + +At this moment we heard several sharp whistles ahead, and a tow-boat +passed close to us in another minute, and then rounding to, ranged up +alongside. How odd a sensation it is to see a new face again after +an absence of four months from the retreats of men! Day after day, +week after week, we have watched Mr. Goggins relieve Mr. Rarx, and +Broadhead relieve Paddy, so steadily that we almost forgot that there +was any one else in existence; and when we perceived the captain of +the tug-boat standing in the pilot-house in a glistening “biled” shirt +and store clothes and a polish on his brown shoes that quite dazzled +us, we gazed upon him fascinated, for he was the biggest dude we had +seen in nineteen weeks. And how uncouth the ship’s company looked +when contrasted with even the tow-boat’s crew! However, we were soon +brought to from our reveries by a large bundle of newspapers that the +tug’s skipper hove on board; and who can depict the joy of that hour, +during which we pored over the journals, marvelling at the commonplace +allusions to momentous events which had been almost forgotten by the +daily reader? + +Presently we passed two ships bound up to Puget Sound,--the “Dashing +Wave” and the “Yosemite” (old Neilsen, a Swede, said he used to +sail in the “Jo-se-might”),--and then, the fog lifting suddenly and +completely, we found ourselves only two miles from the Heads. “Get +out an old ensign,” said the skipper to the mate, “and put it in the +riggin’, union down.” “Hall right, sir,” answered that individual with +much satisfaction, and in a few minutes an old torn flag, reversed, +fluttered in the starboard mizzen-shrouds. It was of ominous meaning, +for to a sailor it signified “police assistance wanted on board.” And +then we remembered the Frenchman below, and wondered what his thoughts +and anticipations must be, for of course he knew that a tow-boat had +our line. + +It was a quarter to noon when we entered the Golden Gate under a +cloudless sky and caught our first glimpse of the world-famed harbor. A +single word describes it,--magnificent. The entrance itself, where the +ship moves on between wild, rugged hills that tower sheer out of the +sea, is marked with an individual grandeur, and serves to prepare one +for the splendid haven within; and when the ship finally glides beyond +a certain headland and creeps slowly along in a perfect maze of great +wooden and steel sailing ships, with the immense expanse of shining +water ahead, the wonderful, perpendicular streets on the starboard +hand, and the endless chain of lofty hills on the other, a sensation of +pride tingles through you when you think that it is your “ain countrie” +that boasts this great, matchless harbor. + +Long before the anchorage was reached a handsome white steamer was seen +approaching us, with a vertically striped flag in the stern. It was the +revenue cutter; and, steaming alongside, four men at once stepped on +board. The first was the customs inspector, and the others, a deputy +United States marshal and two policemen. It was a dramatic scene. All +of our men were huddled around the galley, with anxious looks toward +the officers of the law, who immediately went into the cabin and held +a long conversation in low tones with the captain. Then the deputy +marshal stepped into the second mate’s room and talked with him five +minutes in whispers, a blue-coat posting himself at each cabin door. +A rattling of keys was heard in another moment, and then old Goggins, +somewhat awed, but as pompous and ridiculous as a turkey, stumped +down into the lazarette, and with much unnecessary clanking of chains +Louis issued forth into daylight. He was as pale as ashes, for a sort +of prison pallor was upon his usually dark cheeks, and he seemed on +the point of breaking down when he saw the police. Then he looked +all around imploringly, first at his shipmates near the galley, then +at Captain Scruggs, and finally he caught sight of us, when he cast +upon us a look so sad and beseeching that I will remember forever the +sorrowful look in his eyes. Only for an instant did he stop, though; +the officers stepped forward at a nod from the deputy, grasped the +Frenchman, still manacled, by the collar, marched him quickly over to +the port side, hustled him aboard the revenue boat, and in another +instant Louis Jacquin, able seaman, of Dunquerque, disappeared from +view and was on his way to show cause for an assault on the high seas +upon Thomas Rarx, second mate of the clipper “Hosea Higgins.” + +When the anchor had touched the bottom we stood by for the crimps. +Even before we were aware of it the evil creatures began to swarm on +board like a flock of sinister vultures, and without ceremony they +fell upon their prey. They plied the men from bottles whose black +nozzles protruded from their coat-pockets; and in a few minutes each +had persuaded his man to go with him when they should get ashore. +Poor fellows, once more in the clutches of the vampires, who, while +not actually fostered by the government, yet are allowed to ply their +abominable and iniquitous trade full in the face of the law. And I +repeat, _the allotment or advance system of wages that now prevails, +and which is the basis upon which the whole scheme of crimping +is founded, must be abolished_. It is the duty of the Federal +government to see to it that this is done. + +At fifteen minutes past twelve there was a loud order from the captain, +“Let go.” Then came the heavy, crushing splash, the fierce rush of +the cable, the big four-thousand-pound anchor gripped the mud of San +Francisco Bay, and our long voyage was a thing of the past. How many +exciting moments we had had in those one hundred and thirty-one days! +What varied phases of the ocean we had witnessed in the seventeen +thousand four hundred miles we had sailed, from the snowy squalls and +hissing seas of Cape Horn to the quiet breezes and calm surface of the +equatorial seas! + +Little time was given us for reflection, though, for the tug-boat +skipper had agreed to put us ashore at the foot of Market Street, if +we would “look alive.” So we threw our valises and shawl-straps to +a deck-hand on the tug, shook Captain Scruggs’ hardy fist, and then +turned to do the same with Mr. Goggins; but as this individual was +invisible at the time, no doubt below in the fore-peak, we were obliged +to forego that pleasure. And now there ensued a remarkable scene: as +we went over the side we noticed that all the sailors were on the +mainyard, unbending the sail, and as we stepped aboard the tow-boat I +shouted, “Good-by, boys! Good luck to you all!” There was a moment’s +silence, and then Broadhead, who was at the starboard yard-arm just +over our heads, sung out, “Now, fellows, three times three for them”; +and at once there broke out the most vociferous and lusty cheering +that ever came from eighteen throats. The men seemed to get worked up +as they shouted, and at last MacFoy and a dozen others fairly yelled +and threw their caps on deck and waved their arms like madmen, so +that their voices went ringing peal on peal over the broad harbor, +bringing to the rail the officers and crews of the big Scotch ships +“Aberfoyle,” “County of Linlithgow” and “Blairgowrie,” which lay hard +by, to know what all this cheering meant on a Yankee just in from sea. +It was a moment to bring a tear to your eye; and neither my wife nor +I can ever forget these honest, big-hearted sailors as they appeared +on that yard, shouting themselves hoarse. Why? Simply because we had +bade them good-morning and good-night during the voyage and had shown +that we understood and appreciated their hard and thankless labors. +If ship-masters would realize that a single kind word or even look +often exerts more influence over a crew than oaths and blows, what +a difference there would be in the handling and navigating of our +long-voyage sailing ships! + + + + +APPENDIX + + +A few days after our arrival at San Francisco, Louis Jacquin was +brought for trial at that port before the United States Commissioner. +He made an excellent defence; so good, indeed, that after due +consideration of both sides of the case, the commissioner was compelled +to discharge him, and Louis walked forth a free man. This was a just +and most satisfactory termination of the matter, though I would have +liked to see Rarx properly punished for his treatment of Karl _et +al._ In truth, Karl, Brün and Pettersen did prefer charges against +both mates, who were held for trial; but when the case came up no +witnesses appeared against them, for the very good reason that the +three men were shanghaied aboard a New York bound ship by the boarding +masters, thus pursuing the usual course in such matters. Rarx recovered +in a short time, and no doubt is at this moment stamping on some poor +fellow whom he has beaten down with the ever-present belaying-pin. + +While this book was in press, there arrived at San Francisco one of our +most widely known Cape-Horners. The men related stories of unusually +shocking cruelties on the part of the captain as well as the officers, +and the second mate was held in five hundred dollars bonds. Two of +the sailors testified, on separate occasions, to this incident: While +wearing off the Horn one day, the second mate struck a sailor down with +a capstan-bar and was kicking him heavily in the head, when the mate +yelled from the poop, “That’s right, kick the life out of him”; to +which the second mate replied, “I would kill him if we were only bound +to Hong-Kong.” + +Is this the way our consuls protect the lives of men under the flag? +What is the matter with our Eastern consular service that men may be +killed on our ships (as they have been), and the murderers go free upon +landing at Chinese and Japanese ports? A delightful travesty, indeed, +upon our exalted civilization. + + +THE END. + + + + +Transcriber’s Notes + +Perceived typographical errors have been silently corrected. + +Colloquial spelling in dialog has been retained as in the original. + +Variations in use of hyphenation, compound words and quotation marks +have been preserved. + +Illustrations have been moved nearer to the text to which they refer. + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75710 *** diff --git a/75710-h/75710-h.htm b/75710-h/75710-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c6d994b --- /dev/null +++ b/75710-h/75710-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,13057 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html lang="en"> +<head> + <meta charset="UTF-8"> + <title> + By Way of Cape Horn | Project Gutenberg + </title> + <link rel="icon" href="images/cover.jpg" type="image/x-cover"> + <style> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .51em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .49em; +} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: 33.5%; + margin-right: 33.5%; + clear: both; +} + +hr.chap {width: 65%; margin-left: 17.5%; margin-right: 17.5%;} +@media print { hr.chap {display: none; visibility: hidden;} } + + +div.chapter {page-break-before: always;} +h2.nobreak {page-break-before: avoid;} + + + +table { + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; +} +table.autotable { border-collapse: collapse; } + + + +.tdl {text-align: left;} +.tdr {text-align: right;} +.tdc {text-align: center;} + +.pagenum { + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: small; + text-align: right; + font-style: normal; + font-weight: normal; + font-variant: normal; + text-indent: 0; +} + + +.blockquot { + margin-left: 5%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + + +.center {text-align: center;} + +.right {text-align: right;} + +.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + +.allsmcap {font-variant: small-caps; text-transform: lowercase;} + +.caption {font-weight: bold;} + +img { + max-width: 100%; + height: auto; +} +img.w100 {width: 100%;} + + +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; + page-break-inside: avoid; + max-width: 100%; +} + + +.poetry-container {display: flex; justify-content: center;} +.poetry .stanza {margin: 1em auto;} +.poetry .verse {text-indent: -3em; padding-left: 3em;} + + +.transnote {background-color: #E6E6FA; + color: black; + font-size:small; + padding:0.5em; + margin-bottom:5em; + font-family:sans-serif, serif; +} + + +.poetry .indent0 {text-indent: -3em;} +.poetry .indent2 {text-indent: -2em;} + + +.illowp10 {width: 10%;} +.illowp20 {width: 20%;} +.illowp35 {width: 35%;} +.illowp75 {width: 75%;} +.illowp90 {width: 90%;} + + + </style> +</head> +<body> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75710 ***</div> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_1">[Pgs 1-3]</span></p> + + + +<p class="center">BY WAY OF CAPE HORN</p> + +<p class="center"><i>FOURTH EDITION</i> +</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</span></p> + + + +<figure class="figcenter illowp90" id="i_004" style="max-width: 152.5em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/i_004.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption class="caption"><p>Cape Horn bearing northwest, distant fifteen miles</p></figcaption> +</figure> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</span></p> + +<h1 class="x-ebookmaker-important">BY WAY OF CAPE HORN</h1> + +<h3>FOUR MONTHS IN A<br> +YANKEE CLIPPER</h3> + +<h5>BY</h5> + +<h4>PAUL EVE STEVENSON</h4> + +<h5>AUTHOR OF “A DEEP-WATER VOYAGE”</h5> + +<h6>ILLUSTRATED FROM PHOTOGRAPHS TAKEN BY THE AUTHOR</h6> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp10" id="i_005" style="max-width: 38.1875em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/i_005.jpg" alt=""> +</figure> + +<h5>PHILADELPHIA</h5> + +<h4>J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY</h4> + +<p class="center">1908 +</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</span></p> + + + + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Copyright, 1898</span></p> + +<p class="center">BY</p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">J. B. Lippincott Company</span> +</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_7">[Pgs 7-8]</span></p> + + + + +<p class="center">TO</p> + +<p class="center">MY MOTHER +</p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_9">[Pgs 9-10]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="PREFACE">PREFACE</h2> +</div> + + +<p>As in the case of our first “Deep-Water Voyage” to Calcutta, the +present one was undertaken with the sole idea of enjoyment. The +pleasure which such a voyage affords the fortunate few in whom there +is a real affection for the sea is quite indescribable. To such there +is no monotony, for there is always something interesting and amusing +going on aboard ship, if one’s eyes are open; the men themselves +present an inexhaustible field for study and reflection, and it is well +known that a more jovial and witty fraternity does not exist.</p> + +<p>But there is also a sombre, tragic side to a voyage in a Yankee +deep-water ship, and that is the cruel and brutal treatment accorded +that most popular individual just now,—the American sailor; by which +is meant the men who sail before the mast under our flag. The merchant +service has ever been regarded as the navy’s nursery, and a faithful +account by an impartial observer will be found in these pages, showing +the manner in which our seamen are treated,—the brothers, as it were, +of those who won our victories at Manila and Santiago.</p> + +<p class="right"> +P. E. S.</p> + + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p><span class="smcap">New York</span>, October 10, 1898.</p> +</div> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS">LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> +</div> + + + +<table class="autotable"> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"><a href="#i_004">Cape Horn bearing northwest, distant fifteen miles</a></td> +<td class="tdr"><i>Frontispiece</i></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> </td> +<td class="tdr"><span class="smcap">PAGE</span></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"><a href="#i_012b">The course of the “Hosea Higgins”</a></td> +<td class="tdr">13</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"><a href="#i_018a">The companion-way</a></td> +<td class="tdr">18</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"><a href="#i_028a">Plan of cabin</a></td> +<td class="tdr">28</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"><a href="#i_048a_2">Forty to the minute</a></td> +<td class="tdr">48</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"><a href="#i_052a">Mending sails in fine weather</a></td> +<td class="tdr">53</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"><a href="#i_084a">Overhauling the “Venturer”</a></td> +<td class="tdr">84</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"><a href="#i_104a">“Blow, my bully boys, blow”</a></td> +<td class="tdr">104</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"><a href="#i_126a">“Eight bells”</a></td> +<td class="tdr">127</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"><a href="#i_212a">A fifty-foot Cape Horn gray-beard</a></td> +<td class="tdr">212</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"><a href="#i_302a">The ablest seaman in the ship</a></td> +<td class="tdr">303</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"><a href="#i_332a">The four-masted British ship “Loch Torridon”</a></td> +<td class="tdr">333</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"><a href="#i_358a">Tarring down</a></td> +<td class="tdr">358</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"><a href="#i_386a">Hauling taut the braces</a></td> +<td class="tdr">387</td> +</tr> +</table> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</span></p> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp75" id="i_012b" style="max-width: 93.75em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/i_012b.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption class="caption"><p>The course of the “Hosea Higgins”</p></figcaption> +</figure> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</span></p> + +<h2 class="x-ebookmaker-important nobreak" id="BY_WAY_OF_CAPE_HORN">BY WAY OF CAPE HORN</h2> +</div> + + +<p>It would have been reasonable to suppose that, having made one long +voyage in a sailing ship, my wife and I would have been content to +stop ashore for the rest of our lives, or at least to limit the length +of our voyages to the distance which separates the United States and +Europe. For a while, indeed, after our return to America from India, +we were contented enough on land, and were kept busy answering the +innumerable questions of interested relatives and friends concerning +the voyage just ended. But restlessness presently attacked us again; +and it was not hard to perceive by the avidity with which my wife +searched the <i>Herald’s</i> ship-news columns every morning for +tidings of deep-water vessels that no persuasion on my part would be +necessary in the event of our undertaking another voyage. Therefore, +when two years had passed away, we began to discuss the advisability of +once more tempting the elements in another sea-journey to far-distant +lands. Japan loomed up before us in a particularly rosy light as a +destination for this voyage; but there was one great objection to it: +a voyage to Yokohama would have taken us around the Cape of Good Hope +a second time, and it was our cherished desire to double Cape Horn, +and thus overcome the two most celebrated and tempestuous promontories +on the globe. Indeed, as far back as I can remember, I have always +wanted to accomplish the westerly passage around the southernmost +extremity of the earth’s continents. The very name of Cape Horn is +enough to fire the imagination of a true lover of the sea, and fills +the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</span> mind with pictures of ships battling with gales of wind and giant +seas and visions of bleak, iron-bound shores wrapped in the gloom +which enshrouds that desolate region. After much discussion, then, we +decided on the voyage from New York to San Francisco. It was January +when we first broached the matter, and, after arguing the pros and cons +of the subject, concluded to try and get away in May, as that would +take us to the Horn in July, the middle of the antarctic winter. At +this our friends stood aghast. “It is quite bad enough,” they said, +“to tempt Providence at all on so foolhardy an excursion, but to +double Cape Horn in midwinter is going beyond the limits of reason.” +But we stood our ground in spite of the hurricane of objections (and +it required some moral courage to do it), and forthwith commenced +systematic preparations for the journey. We were making the voyage to a +great extent for the purpose of experiencing the weather and seas off +Cape Horn, and as the latter would, no doubt, be larger and grander +in winter than in summer, I don’t think that our idea was so very +preposterous after all.</p> + +<p>Naturally, our first thought was of the vessel in which we were to +sail, and we looked forward with much interest to a voyage in an +American ship, having all our lives heard that our ships were run in +a splendid manner, that the discipline on board was perfect, etc.; +and it would also be interesting to compare this vessel with those +of another nation, as our first voyage was made in the British ship +“Mandalore.” Now, it happened that all of our largest deep-watermen +were away from New York, and we were at a loss what to do, for, as a +general rule, the larger the vessel the more comfortable she is in +bad weather. There are many who will, no doubt, take exception to +this, as being by no means true; yet it would be absurd to argue that +the “Germanic,” for instance, is as easy in heavy<span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</span> weather as the +“Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse,” or a twelve-hundred-ton sailing ship as +the “Potosi.” At length, one morning appeared the announcement in the +marine news that the ship “Hosea Higgins,” Abner Scruggs, master, had +arrived from San Francisco. She was not as large as the “Roanoke” by +a thousand tons or more; but she was well known to us by name, and we +went over to Brooklyn one day, where she was discharging a cargo of +wine, canned salmon, and whale-oil, and introduced ourselves to the +captain. Although gruff in the extreme at first, he subsequently thawed +out sufficiently to warrant the belief that he was really quite an +amiable individual, and we parted with his assurance that if the owners +were willing he would take us around to San Francisco, and even went to +the length of offering us his own room, which was very large and well +ventilated. The owners raised no objections to our going, so we paid +the passage-money of six hundred dollars and took possession of the +captain’s room. I might remark parenthetically that this seemed to be a +pretty good round sum to pay as passage-money, in view of the fact that +we paid only three hundred dollars to Calcutta on the first voyage; +however, in the latter case the money went to the captain, while in +the present instance it went to the owners; besides, this passage +would probably be somewhat longer. The captain received no recompense +whatever, unless we should choose to make him a present.</p> + +<p>The ship was advertised to sail on May 1, but there was the usual +delay incident to the departure of a sailing ship taking out a general +cargo, and it was nearly a fortnight after that date before we finally +departed.</p> + +<p>Under any conditions it is interesting to watch the loading of a large +sailing ship, and when you are going to sea in that ship, a certain +degree of interest seems to attach itself to each article, and the +assortment of freight was<span class="pagenum" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</span> bewildering. In a couple of hours, one +morning when I was on board, there came down in rapid succession two +large boilers for Spreckles’s sugar refinery in Honolulu, several +hundred cases of starch, ditto kegs of nails, two wagon-loads of +sewing-machines, two hundred bales of oakum, and four very large +whale-boats, about thirty-five feet long, going out to Sitka. Strange +that they can not or do not build good whale-boats on the Pacific +coast; the best boats used by our whalers are all built in New Bedford, +even down to the present time, and sent out to Alaska round the Horn.</p> + +<p>It will be easily perceived how difficult it must be to stow a cargo +of this sort so that in the heaviest of weather it will not shift. +Imagine packing away four clumsy boats in a ship’s hold so that they +will not be crushed by heavier objects, and yet in such a way as to +prevent these very objects from shifting. If the various articles could +be delivered on the pier to suit the stevedores, it would be plain +sailing; but everything must be taken as it comes, and it calls for the +greatest skill from the most experienced men. There is said to be only +a single firm of this sort in New York whose men understand perfectly +the art of stowing the cargo of a deep-water ship.</p> + +<p>For several days we were tortured on the rack of expectation; but after +the most aggravating delays and daily messages from the owners that +the ship “would positively go to sea to-morrow,” we learned one Monday +morning that the ship would be cleared that day and would sail the next +morning, which was</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">May 11</span></p> + +<p>Oh, the riot attendant upon the departure of a ship on a long voyage! +The distraction and tumult are at some moments terrific, in spite of +everything that has been<span class="pagenum" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</span> written about a vessel’s being in perfect +order to a sailor’s eye when leaving port. We have been on two large +ships now when getting under way, and all I have to say on the subject +is, that it is wonderful how much disturbance and disorder can be +gathered into so small a space as a ship’s deck. We were told to be +on board by nine o’clock, as the tide would serve soon afterward, and +we would haul out about ten. At the stipulated hour, then, we went +over the side and found that the crew had just come down. They were +collected together in the waist, and in the centre of the group stood +a hard-looking individual whom I took for the shipping-master. He was +haranguing the men, who seemed to listen intently, though I couldn’t +hear what was said; and when I strolled to the break of the poop to +be nearer to him, he gruffly commanded me to “go way from there, will +you.” Why he did so it is impossible to say, unless he was engaged in +some unlawful transaction. This was, no doubt, the reason, as there is +no attempt made by the United States authorities to enforce the laws +relating to the shipping of seamen. By and by this creature took his +disagreeable countenance over the side, and immediately those who were +not too drunk were turned to at various odd jobs about the decks. Some +of the men, however, were too far gone to even stand upright alone, +so the two mates seized half a dozen of them and drove them forward +and into the forecastle, the door of which was then locked, and the +men were left to themselves to sleep off some of the effects of South +Street grog. Those who come aboard in this condition generally have a +bottle or two each of rum concealed about them, and after a vigorous +search the mate found himself possessed of several quarts of very bad +grog, which he hove into the river.</p> + +<p>Several of our relatives and friends had come down to see us off, and, +seated aft by the wheel-house, they seemed<span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</span> to take deep interest in +the rakish fellows who were to be our companions, as it were, for four +or five months. On the whole, they were a very decent-looking crowd; +but when the second mate sung out, “Come up here a couple of you, +and give us a hand with this tow line,” and all hands came stumbling +up the poop ladders and lumbered aft with that fixed, idiotic stare +of half-intoxicated men trying to show how very sober they are, we +observed that our relatives shuddered as they thought of our being +imprisoned for maybe half a year with this company of ruffians, as +they, no doubt, supposed the men to be.</p> + +<p>A remarkable feature of the departure of our ship was the crowd that +had gathered to see us off. A body of men and boys to the number of +at least two hundred were ranged along the pier, minutely criticising +the ship and the way in which she was sparred, as well as the probable +length of voyage. “It’ll be Cape Horn in July,” said one, “and she’ll +never do it in less than a hundred and fifty.” “Guess you don’t know +the old man, or you wouldn’t say that,” said his neighbor. “If Scruggs +don’t take her out under a hundred and twenty, I’m a farmer.” Here +a movement was perceptible among the crowd; somebody seemed to be +elbowing his way through the midst, and in another moment we recognized +the fierce whiskers of Abner Scruggs himself. With him was one of the +agents, and they both seemed angry about something; but the captain +greeted us very amiably, imparting to us at the same time the unwelcome +news that he must now clear the ship of all who were not going along. +Sad farewells were said, relatives and friends were handed over the +gangway, which was instantly drawn on board, the powerful tow-boat +“C. E. Evarts” started ahead, and we began to move slowly out, stern +first, into the rapid current of the East River. So imperceptibly did +we gather way that it was a minute or<span class="pagenum" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</span> so before any one on the pier +saw that we had started; some one in the crowd suddenly perceived it +and shouted “she’s off;” and as our long, slender jib-boom glided out +past the string-piece, we were saluted with a series of hearty cheers, +which lasted until the tugs (for another joined us) had slued the ship +around and headed her for Governor’s Island. On the way down the river +we passed two splendid iron sailing vessels,—the German ship “H. +Bischoff,” which had just arrived after an extraordinarily long passage +of two hundred and eighteen days from Hong Kong; and the British ship +“Walter H. Wilson,” being one of only a few English vessels named after +individuals.</p> + +<p>The second tow-boat left us at Governor’s Island, and afterward it was +extremely slow work, as the speed at no time was greater than four +knots an hour. Off Tompkinsville we passed the battle-ship “Indiana” +and the cruiser “New York,” each of which we saluted with three dips of +the ensign, which were returned in kind. We could see the sailors on +the men-of-war gather in crowds to watch us drag slowly by, for it is +not so very frequently nowadays that a large ship flying the stars and +stripes is seen on her way to sea.</p> + +<p>In the lower bay we found a very light southerly wind blowing, and a +German iron bark with painted ports that had passed us outward bound, +returned and anchored in the Horseshoe, not caring to continue under +conditions somewhat unfavorable. However, we kept on, and commenced +to make sail off the point of the Hook; and I must here assert that I +never saw such confusion as reigned during this operation. The disorder +when hauling into the stream was bad enough, but when the command was +given to cast off the gaskets the ship was in a perfect whirl till the +mizzen sky-sail had been swayed aloft, and as it takes several hours +to make sail when first leaving port, the mates were almost<span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</span> out of +their minds when the job had been finished. All hands began with the +customary blackguarding of the men who had bent the sails, and the +second mate passed the afternoon taking his oath that he “never did see +quite the like of the mess them riggers had made aloft,” while the men +were jumping about the decks like headless chickens, trying to find +where the various ropes led to, for no two ships are rigged alike. It +may be imagined how confusing it is for a man to come aboard of a ship +and find that some of the sheets and clew-lines are not belayed in the +same place as in the vessel that he left only a week ago. Indeed an +intelligent second mate will often be two or three days getting the +“hang” of a sailing vessel.</p> + +<p>Before dark, though, everything had been straightened out, and the +ropes coiled away over the pins, and the decks at length began +to assume that well-ordered appearance so attractive in a large +square-rigger.</p> + +<p>The men are a far better lot than we expected to find in a Cape-Horner, +and most of them are on the sunny side of thirty-five, though there +are two or three old hulks among them. About three o’clock the drunken +sailors were hauled out of the forecastle, and they were a sight +as they yawed around, falling over ropes and capstan-bars. As the +foretop-gallant-sail was being sheeted home, the captain went down +on the main deck to have a look about the ship, when to our intense +astonishment a young tow-headed sailor, the drunkest of the lot, +lurched up to him, and, leaning against the skipper’s shoulder, poured +some tale of woe into his ear. Now, Captain Scruggs doesn’t look like +a particularly mild-tempered person, and when the man held out a +ponderous fist to shake hands with him, we didn’t know what was going +to happen. But the captain gravely gave him his hand and nodded his +head, while the man lurched forward to his companions. At six o’clock<span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</span> +Captain Scruggs said, “I don’t believe in giving grog to sailors at any +time, but some of the men are feeling pretty well used up from the hard +work after a long drunk ashore, so I’m going to give ’em a bracer.” +Forthwith a bucketful of diluted Jamaica rum was served out at the +cabin door, each man as his pannikin was filled nodding his thanks to +the steward. One of them, however, a very sinister-looking man, tried +to snatch the bucket away from the little steward; but the skipper +caught him at the moment, and then for the first time we heard Captain +Scruggs’s deep-sea voice. The man was so scared by the hurricane of +words hurled at him that he dropped the bucket, which luckily didn’t +capsize, and, pulling his front hair to the skipper, insisted that it +wasn’t he “who was doin’ the funny business.”</p> + +<p>Our first night on board began silently and peacefully, and we turned +in early after the turmoil of the day.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">May 12</span></p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“The ship was cheered, the harbor cleared,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Merrily did we drop,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Below the kirk, below the hill, below the</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Light-house top.”</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>When we reached the deck this morning, the lofty Navesink highlands +had vanished beyond the horizon and we floated alone upon the ocean. +The day came on with a fresh southerly wind and a lively sea. My wife +went to bed last night sea-sick, and this morning she was very ill and +wholly given over to dismal reflections. The motion was quite severe, +and I myself felt far happier on deck than below. Indeed, it generally +takes me three or four days to grow fully accustomed to being at sea. +The captain evidently saw that I wasn’t feeling particularly robust, so +he instilled life into me by asking whether I wouldn’t<span class="pagenum" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</span> like to keep +the meteorological record during the voyage, the ship being provided +with blanks for the purpose by the Hydrographic Office at Washington. +This will be very interesting work for me, and I feel quite important.</p> + +<p>If a man commenced guessing what we in the cabin had for breakfast +to-day, he might keep on indefinitely without hitting the mark, for we +had broiled sweet-breads! Ponder on this, ye landsmen; a week hence, +though, will see the end of our ice and therefore of the fresh meat. To +our surprise, one hundred pounds of prime beef, mutton, and chickens +for broiling came down about an hour before we sailed, beautifully +packed in a cask in alternate layers of meat and ice, and now repose +under the forecastle head in a cool place. No doubt, by exercising +a little care, much, for us aft, may be accomplished in the way of +prolonging our Lucullian banquets. Imagine a fresh, juicy roast of beef +off Cape Horn!</p> + +<p>Before proceeding with the history of our voyage, there may be some +readers who would like to know what sort of a ship this is in which we +are journeying, and the following is a description of the vessel.</p> + +<p>The “Hosea Higgins” is a powerful wooden ship, a fraction over two +thousand tons net, with a length over all of two hundred and sixty +feet, a beam of forty-four feet, and a draught of twenty-five; she was +built at Waldoboro, Maine, in 1885, and is of course classed A 1. She +is a three-master, very loftily rigged, as nearly all Yankee ships are, +crossing three sky-sail-yards, and her mainyard is ninety-five feet +long. There is but one house on the main-deck, but it is a very large +one and contains the forecastle, sail-room, galley, and carpenter-shop, +in which there is a twenty horse-power donkey engine. So many persons +have asked us at various times about the cabins of sailing<span class="pagenum" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</span> ships, that +we have made a plan of the saloon and staterooms, which appears on the +opposite page.</p> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp35" id="i_028a" style="max-width: 76.375em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/i_028a.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption class="caption"><p>PLAN OF CABIN</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>1, captain’s room (ours); 2, spare room; 3, office; 4, steward; 5, +pantry; 6, second mate; 7, bath-room; 8, spare room (captain’s); 9, +chart-room; 10, store-room; 11, carpenter; 12, mate. A, harmonium; +B, table; C, chairs; D, sofa; E, exits; F, companion-way to poop; G, +mizzen-mast; H, dining-table; I, stove; J, vestibules; K, exits on +main-deck.</p> +</div> + +</figcaption> +</figure> + + +<p>So much for the ship; now for the monarch who commands her. Abner +Scruggs is one of a very large family of sea-faring men, and hails from +Rockland, Maine; in stature he is not exalted, but is very massive, +and before he grew stout was no doubt a powerful man, his age being +about fifty years. He is fierce of aspect, with bristling whiskers and +dark eyes that snap like electric sparks when angry; and I have never +known a man who could utter his commands in so determined, severe, and +brittle a voice.</p> + +<p>The mate’s name is Leander Goggins. By the way, on a sailing ship the +man who holds that position is never called the chief mate, first +officer, or anything except simply “the mate,” even if there are four +of them. Mr. Goggins was born in Chichester, England, about fifty years +ago, but left that country when a lad and became a citizen of the +United States, an unusual performance for an Englishman, who seldom +renounces his native land. He is short and small generally, talks with +a terrific cockney accent, in spite of his thirty-five years in and +about America, and possesses one of those countenances which you can’t +tell anything about; but his looks are not in his favor. One of his +most objectionable points is his fawning servility, which is never +prominent in a man who amounts to much, however humble his station.</p> + +<p>The second mate, Thomas Rarx, is a Nova Scotian, and is a large, +raw-boned, hearty man with a fresh complexion, and is therefore the +mate’s antithesis. You would never suppose that he was addicted to the +thumping of sailors, yet this is one of the most important duties of +the second mate of an American ship; on some of our sailing vessels +it seems to be the most important. Then there are two<span class="pagenum" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</span> bosuns; one of +them, a Brooklyn youth, is a weak-looking creature, and has more the +appearance of an American District Messenger boy than that of bosun +of a Cape-Horner; perhaps his name has crushed his spirit,—it is +Jimmie Rumps. But the other bosun is a brawny Scot, David MacFoy, of +Troon; he is a splendid man, beautifully built, tall, straight, very +good-looking, and is somewhat conceited, handles the men well, and has +a cyclonic voice.</p> + +<p>The cook and steward are both natives of the East. The latter is from +Singapore, and is therefore a true Malay; blandness seems to be his +chief attribute, and his bashfulness allows him to do nothing but +smile and back out of sight. What there is of the cook seems to be +unexceptionable; he is a Cantonite, about four feet and a half high, +weighs possibly ninety pounds, and is a tip-top sea-cook.</p> + +<p>Next comes the carpenter, whose only name aboard ship is “Chips.” +Instead of a neat, clean person, redolent of pine shavings and +saw-dust, our carpenter is a very dirty, fat individual, who appears +to have been steeped for an indefinite period in a solution of +kerosene and lamp-black. Most Finns (why Russian Finn? The man who +says that will say hop-toad) seem to be dirty, however, so that he is +no exception; in weight he would go well over two hundred and thirty +pounds, and, as a whole, is the most objectionable-looking person whom +I have ever seen. You could never call him Chips. As for Sammie, the +boy, he is a short, thick, young Jew, not prepossessing in appearance, +and with an apparently wonderful capacity for doing nothing; like Peter +Simple, he looks as though he could stand a great deal of sleep. We +have seen so little of the sailors as yet that, of course, no notion of +any of them can be formed.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</span></p> + +<p>We did fairly well as to distance sailed in the twenty-four hours, and +at noon we were one hundred and seventy-five miles from Sandy Hook.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">May 13</span></p> + +<p>This was a glorious morning, with a fresh breeze from the southward. +Last night the wind came whistling along in strong puffs, and we had +to stow both sky-sails and royals for it; and when I went on deck at +7.30, quite a hummocky sea was running from the southwest. My wife +was exceedingly sea-sick all night long, and clung tenaciously to the +theory that she would perish within twenty-four hours. At about ten +this morning, though, both wind and sea having gone down somewhat, my +wife consented to go on deck, so we arranged chairs on the cabin-house, +and she stayed there all day, improving every minute. By supper-time +she had a hearty longing for food, and we have no more misgivings as to +sea-sickness for the rest of the voyage.</p> + +<p>I rather like the way in which the second mate goes to work; he appears +to be a very fine seaman, and this is perhaps the most desirable +and necessary of all the acquirements of a second mate. He has also +considerable quiet humor; yesterday afternoon he caught sight of one +of the men who had not yet recovered the full use of his faculties, +fussing about on the mainyard; and after watching him for a few moments +he sung out, “Mainyard there, what the h—— are you gapin’ at! Cast +off that yard-arm gasket; d’ye think yer messperized?” After which, he +rolled forward, and we could see him chuckling and shaking at his own +conceit.</p> + +<p>Our fresh breeze wafted us across two hundred and twenty miles of the +North Atlantic yesterday, and at noon we were in latitude 39° 22′ +north; longitude, 65° 8′ west.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</span></p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">May 14</span></p> + +<p>Another fine day with the same fresh breeze from the southward, and +the captain is busy shaking hands with himself on his good offing; +remembering the German who turned back and anchored in the Horseshoe, +he mutters from time to time, “Oh, I wish I was under Sandy Hook, I +don’t think.” We couldn’t carry the sky-sails last night, but they +were set this forenoon, and we are now doing fully ten knots. My wife +has entirely recovered, and is amusing herself with the three cats +on board. One of them is a splendid animal, a pure Maltese, whose +companion is a so-called coon cat; both of them belong to the captain. +The third beast is the mate’s, an unfortunate, weird, black-and-white +alley-cat, tall and lank, and as hideous as a nightmare.</p> + +<p>It is remarkable how good the eating is on board; for although on many +ships the meat, flour, etc., are often the best that can be bought, +everything is frequently spoiled by villainous cookery; even our coffee +is as good as people generally have ashore. Captain Scruggs told us +before we sailed that he was a dyspeptic, and said that he had to +be very particular about what he ate. On this we somewhat callously +congratulated ourselves; and, sure enough, the skipper’s stomachic +infirmities have insured us none but the best of everything. It might +be here remarked that we brought absolutely nothing with us in the +way of provisions. It is customary for captains to ascertain what +their prospective passengers’ preferences are before storing the ship; +and, as I knew the company who had the vitualling of the ship, it was +certain that nothing better could be bought. Indeed, the average ship +in these days carries such an abundance and variety of wholesome food, +that unless one cared to take along such absurd edibles as patés and +the like, the food question can very well take care of itself.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</span></p> + +<p>The mate, Leander Goggins, entertained us at breakfast this morning +with some more or less remarkable conversation. It really seems +impossible that a man can hate his native country as he does; and he +gave an affirmative reply to Scott’s famous question,—</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“Breathes there the man with soul so dead</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Who never to himself hath said,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">‘This is my own, my native land?’”</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>The skipper jollies him up constantly about his still being an +Englishman in spite of his citizen’s papers, and this morning the mate +couldn’t withstand it any longer, and delivered himself as follows, +with great intensity: “Cap’n Scruggs, sir, I thank God I left Hengland +w’en I were eleven year hold, sir. I tell you, cap’n, and you too, +sir, it ain’t no fit country for a man to call himself a native of. +A pore man carn’t take off ’is ’at to a lord, sir; ho, no; ’e’s got +to bow and sheer and pull ’is front ’air; and if hit’s a lady, why ’e +mustn’t look at all.” This was enough to disgust any one with him; +and he made so strange an appearance with his weather-stained face, +bleary little eyes, and heavily veined temples, that I almost shouted +when he finished. A great slashing scar on his chin, when his stubby +beard permits it to be seen, doesn’t add much to his personal charms. +Later on he began to talk about Captain Bob Waterman, perhaps the most +unpleasantly notorious ship-master in the old New York-California +trade. The mate averred that he had sailed with “Cap’n Bob,” and +he added that the yarn about Cap’n Bob’s having cast off the lee +main-brace in a Cape Horn squall one night, jerking half a dozen men +into the sea just because he didn’t like them, he had always considered +as probable. “’E shot ’is own child, you know,” pleasantly added Mr. +Goggins, as though he were mentioning the killing of a chicken.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</span></p> + +<p>At noon we were six hundred and fifty miles from Sandy Hook, in +latitude 38° 58′ north; longitude, 60° 14′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">May 15</span></p> + +<p>Glorious weather, with southwest winds as fresh as ever; it is growing +much warmer, and the temperature of the water has risen to 71°, making +it possible to bathe in it without much gasping.</p> + +<p>Shortly after breakfast the captain asked us if we wouldn’t like to +go forward and see him catch a bonito, as there were several playing +about the forefoot. So we went up on the forecastle head, sat down on +the gammoning-iron, and watched the skipper creep out on the bowsprit +with a cod-line and a hook baited with a bit of rag in his hand. Then +he went through various manœuvres necessary in the capture of these +deep-sea fish, and incidentally nearly manœuvred himself off the +jib-boom. The scheme consisted in dropping the rag swiftly down till it +touched the water, and instantly jerking it upward again, to excite the +imagination of the fish, I suppose. They looked very fine darting about +at great speed several feet beneath the surface, being of a brilliant +hue, and at first we thought that they were young dolphins,—that is, +the dolphin of sailors. At length, after innumerable vain efforts, +accompanied with much hard breathing and damning of the fish’s eyes, +the captain hooked one and hauled him up, snapping and fighting till he +was dropped into a gunny sack held by one of the men. He looked like a +plump mackerel, weighed six pounds, and will afford a little variety to +our evening repast.</p> + +<p>This afternoon the skipper said that I ought to have a pair of +sea-slippers; so he vanished into the slop-chest (the technical name +for the apartment where all sorts of wearing apparel for the crew is +kept) and emerged with the most<span class="pagenum" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</span> uncomfortable looking foot-gear +that I ever beheld. The slippers (?) were made of immensely thick red +grain-leather, with heavy, pegged soles, as inflexible as plate armor +and as easy-looking as Belgian sabots. The captain said that they were +as tight as sea-boots, if I kept the water from flowing over the tops, +adding, “I’ll tell you what I do: in cold, wet weather I just haul a +pair of heavy socks right over the outside of the slippers and make +boots of ’em.”</p> + +<p>At a quarter to five this afternoon we sighted a steamer on the lee +bow, and as there was a chance of signalling her, and she was bound to +the westward, we put our helm up a little and kept away a couple of +points. At 5.30 she was abreast of us, and we hoisted our number and +“report me all well,” to which she hoisted her answering pennant. She +was a very large English cargo-boat, one of that new style of tramp +freighters with one funnel, two pole-masts, and a great sheer. She +seemed to be making more than ten knots (though the snow-drift under +her bows indicated about twenty-five), and should therefore reach New +York in time to be reported in next Wednesday’s papers. Latitude at +noon, 38° 31′ north; longitude, 55° 2′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">May 16</span></p> + +<p>Our first Sabbath at sea broke calm and warm. When we went on deck +at seven bells not a breath of air was stirring, the ship had no +steerage-way, and an oily calm lay upon the face of the deep, recalling +memories of our previous voyage, when, in this very part of the ocean +in the month of July, we averaged twenty miles a day for twenty-one +days. Four hundred and twenty miles in three weeks wouldn’t burn a +ship’s copper off; it is about three-quarters of one day’s run of the +fastest express steamers.</p> + +<p>It was truly hot this afternoon, for the calm prevailed all<span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</span> day; but +fortunately there was quite a swell present, in which we rolled about, +creating pleasant draughts from the slatting sails. How orderly and +quiet a ship is on a Sunday afternoon when the weather is mild and +clear! Every rope, every implement, is in its place, the decks have +been washed as clean as hard scrubbing can make them, and the brass +mountings shine like mirrors. Coiled away in shady nooks lie the watch, +each with a book or paper in his hand, deep buried in its contents. +Some recline in the waterways under shadow of the bulwarks, others +in the shade of the deck-house; some on the forecastle-head, where +cool airs circulate from the swinging of the big foresail and jibs. +The only audible sounds are the flapping of the sails, the somnolent +cheeping of the blocks, and the working of the rudder-head as the ship +rolls about in the swell, with perhaps the low tones of a man’s voice +humming an air to himself on the main-hatch. A more peaceful scene it +would be impossible to find than that presented by a large ship thus +becalmed,—more tranquil and solemn than the little country hamlet +dozing in the drowsiness of a mid-summer, Sabbath afternoon.</p> + +<p>Let a breeze come along, though, from an unexpected quarter, and in an +instant everything starts into life. “Square the crojjick-yard!” comes +with startling suddenness from the officer of the watch. In a moment +the half-hidden forms of the men spring with a bound from their cool +retreats, and the forward part of the ship resounds with their deep +voices as they come rolling aft, each repeating the order, “Square the +crojjick-yard, sir.” Aft they come in a shuffling trot,—not slovenly, +but in a cheerful way,—and the ponderous yards creak slowly round to +the hoarse tones of the bosun.</p> + +<p>It is during such scenes as this that the magic of the sea takes hold +of the imaginative mind. The remembrance of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</span> gales of wind, and of +hail and sleet and snow fade utterly from the memory, and the mind is +conscious only of the inexpressible charm which the mighty deep exerts +over those who truly love the sea and go down to it in ships.</p> + +<p>After breakfast this morning the mate told me how oranges are loaded +at Tahiti, by hauling the vessels up under the trees which overhang +the water and shaking the fruit into the hold. Already Mr. Goggins +is beginning to growl at the weather. What he wants all the time is +“just enough to show the sky-sails to, sir.” We had a little more wind +after breakfast, it is true, but it came from the southeast and let +go at ten. Last night, just before we turned in, some Mother Cary’s +chickens which were flying around the ship began to utter their quaint, +plaintive cries, at which Captain Scruggs and the mate shuddered and +looked grave. I asked Mr. Goggins what was wrong, and he replied, +“Whenever the blarsted birds cry, there’s sure to be a long spell o’ +light weather.”</p> + +<p>It is strange what disdain merchant skippers have for yachting, nor +can they ever understand why a man should expend so much on a vessel +without trying to derive some income from the same. I happened to +mention to the skipper last evening that I once chartered a pine-apple +schooner at Nassau and took a party of friends on a cruise through the +Bahamas. “After shells, I suppose,” quoth the worthy man, thinking +that my scheme was to load up with the beautiful shells found in those +islands and take them across to the mainland and sell them. Again I +told him that my most cherished scheme was to navigate the South Seas +in an auxiliary yacht. “Yes,” he answered, “it’s a good notion; trading +ain’t dead there yet.” Perhaps the most amusing incident of this sort +happened once when I was on board a yacht lying at Vineyard Haven. A +large three-masted schooner came in, having lost her<span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</span> mizzentop-mast. +The owner of the yacht pulled aboard of the schooner and looked her +over, and then asked her captain and mate back to the yacht. Of course +they admired her exceedingly, and as she was quite a large boat, they +observed that it must cost a sight to run her. Finally, when they were +about to return to their own vessel, the skipper asked, gravely and in +perfect good faith, “What I don’t understand is, how do you make her +pay?” Latitude, 37° 50′ north; longitude, 53° 40′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">May 17</span></p> + +<p>Perhaps we may change our opinion before the voyage is over. Perhaps +we may not. I have seen enough of the skipper to know that this voyage +is not going to be exquisitely pleasant for ourselves, the mates, or +the men. A little disturbance started this forenoon in the following +manner: A barrel of carrots, onions, and parsnips had been rolled under +the forecastle-head by the mate, who then forgot all about it; so that, +instead of giving it to the cook, he allowed the green stuff to wilt +and wither in the heat of the past forty-eight hours. The captain heard +of this for the first time to-day, and ever since not a single thing +has gone right for him. We first noticed that something was amiss with +the skipper by the tone he used to the helmsman at eleven o’clock, when +he told him to “hold her up a little more.” The man obeyed instantly, +but made an inexcusable mistake: he forgot to answer, and in this he +was, of course, wrong, for he should have either repeated the order or +said, “Ay, ay, sir.” The captain then told him in forcible language +what would happen to men who failed to answer. We thought that the +matter was settled, when the mate came aft from the break of the poop +on a run, thrust his fist through the wheel-house window in the man’s +face and snarled, “Now, luk ud ’ere, ain’t I told yer<span class="pagenum" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</span> to answer w’en +yer spoken to, eh? Well, you just do it, or <i>I’ll</i> teach yer to +open yer mouth; I’ll <i>fix</i> yer.” Innocent words, comparatively +speaking, but no one can imagine the intensity of emphasis on the +“fix,” or the malignant, hazing tone which the mate threw into his +threat. The skipper had just “jumped on” the mate, and, of course, the +latter must find some one to retaliate on, and here was an opportunity. +The boy Sammie, too, came in for his share of attention, but it must be +said that this slothful youth deserved it; and, finally, the skipper +and mate came to words at dinner about a barrel of hard bread. Captain +Scruggs graduated years ago with high honors in the art of nagging, and +at last he provoked Mr. Goggins beyond endurance. “Goddlemighty, Cap’n +Scruggs, if I ain’t seen no ship-bread, ’ow could I break it out?” We +expected an explosion from the old man, but he only tugged fiercely at +his whiskers and shut the mate up with, “All right, sir; all right. We +won’t continue the argument.” As the day wore on his temper grew worse +and worse; and when I called his attention to a school of fish playing +alongside, supposing that he would like to see them, he answered +tartly, “Very well, sir; you’d better jump overboard and catch ’em.” I +thought it best not to reply; but it was very annoying, for some of the +men hard by smiled broadly.</p> + +<p>It must be acknowledged that the thought of being obliged to sit +opposite to this man at table three times a day for at least four +months is a disagreeable one, and this is not a cheerful meditation at +the very beginning of a voyage. Yet, the captain has proved that in +some ways he is very kind and considerate; but he has that hard, flinty +voice and overbearing manner, an instance of which the reader can +doubtless recall among his seafaring friends.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</span></p> + +<p>Throughout nearly the entire day we had an almost perfect calm; this, +of course, aggravated the old man’s temper, for he seems to be a most +intolerant individual. So little headway did we make that at noon we +were in latitude 37° 22′ north; longitude, 52° 39′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">May 18</span></p> + +<p>We had another sample of American ship “discipline” this morning. We +went on deck at 7.30 to eat some fruit before breakfast, and as soon as +the skipper hove in sight it was plain that he was looking for trouble. +Presently the mate appeared, and it was evident from his countenance +that he had found the trouble the captain was looking for. In a little +while two of the men came aft, each with a case of oil in his arms, +which they deposited on deck by the wheel-house, preparatory to passing +them down into the lazarette. One of the hands, Brün, an inoffensive, +quiet Norwegian (the most peaceable sailors in the world), happened to +put his case down with the lettered side underneath, which displeased +the skipper, who asked him, in his ogre’s voice, if he hadn’t told him +the way to handle case-oil. Now, the man was evidently doing the very +best he could, which was evident from his great desire to please, and +also from the way in which his hands shook. Finally he grew so nervous +that when he picked up the case to turn it over, it slipped and fell +with a loud noise on the deck. At this the poor fellow jumped back +several feet and put up his arm to ward off the expected blow; but the +skipper saw plainly that it was an accident and was going to let the +matter pass, when the mate jumped in between them and, catching a firm +hold of Brün’s right ear, gave it a terrific wrench, that slued him +round and brought him to his knees, while he yelled, “Ain’t <i>I</i> +told yer how to lay them cases down?”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</span></p> + +<p>Such scenes as this are extremely unpleasant, particularly as they are +always accompanied with boisterous language; and, as we saw the whole +affair, I can say with certainty that it was absolutely unprovoked and +unnecessary. If the man had been of a surly or ugly disposition, and +intentionally put the case down wrongly, some excuse might be in order +for the mate’s conduct; but this fellow has always been unobtrusive, +and actually jumps in his desire to please. It is generally men of +a certain temperament that mates pick out to haze,—men with no +appearance of “sand.” I have never known a man of Mr. Goggins’s sort to +try it on a determined-looking, deliberate seaman.</p> + +<p>How calm it was until five o’clock yesterday afternoon! The sea was as +if oiled and of a rich blue, fascinating to contemplate and deeper in +color than usual. No stream that ever cascaded down a mountain-side +could approach in transparency the sea-water as found in the remote +solitudes of the ocean. We had a strange sunset, too, the horizon +being apparently at an immense distance, with whole chains of ragged, +golden-tipped clouds, like jagged mountain rocks, seemingly a hundred +miles away. We had a fine breeze all day from east-northeast, which, +it is true, jammed us on the wind, but it was fresh enough to blow us +along at seven knots. Latitude at noon, 36° 5′ north; longitude, 50° +36′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">May 19</span></p> + +<p>This was perhaps the finest day which we have had yet. It broke with +the heavens obscured; but during the forenoon the clouds melted under +the influence of the sun and an afternoon of dazzling brilliancy +followed. A fresh breeze whistled out of the east-northeast, giving us +as much as we could show the sky-sails to; and the ocean was covered +with foam-topped waves like immense snow<span class="pagenum" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</span> flakes, the crests of which +often came tumbling in glee over the weather side.</p> + +<p>Yesterday afternoon at two o’clock we rose the upper canvas of a bark +on the port bow, bound in the same direction as ourselves; at 4.30 she +was abeam, and at seven in the evening, her trucks had vanished below +the horizon astern! In truth this ship is a flyer on a wind, for, in +order to pass the other vessel in so short a time, we must have sailed +almost, if not quite, two miles to her one. Again, this morning at +daylight, we made out the sails of a ship hull down to leeward; she was +then abeam, steering about southeast, but during the afternoon we ran +her out of sight, too. For the past twenty-four hours we have certainly +done splendidly, logging one hundred and ninety-eight miles, hauled +as close to the wind as possible. Captain Scruggs even went so far as +to say that he thought that there were only two other American ships +afloat that could have made more than two hundred miles to-day by the +wind,—the “Henry B. Hyde” and the “A. G. Ropes.” Later I asked the +skipper which he considered was the finest all-round wooden ship under +the flag to-day; his answer instantly was, “the ’Hyde’ by all odds; and +not only that, but she’s one of the finest ships that ever came out +of a Maine ship-yard.” She was built about ten years ago in Bath, by +John McDonald, a Nova Scotian and a pupil of the famous Donald Mackay +of Boston, who turned out so many celebrated clippers thirty or forty +years ago. The “Hyde” is a large ship, registering twenty-five hundred +tons; but in spite of her size she is a three-master, being, I believe, +the second largest ship of this rig at the present time, the British +ship “Ditton” heading the roll of three-masters with a net tonnage of +about twenty-eight hundred. Almost all sailing vessels of over two +thousand tons register are now built with four masts.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</span></p> + +<p>Last night I was talking with the mate about sea-birds, and he was +giving me considerable information of the birds on the Pacific coast, +when he said, suddenly, “I see a ’awk at sea once, sir.” “Indeed,” said +I, “that is very interesting, for the bird is almost extinct; it must +have been a long time ago, for even the eggs now are quite valuable.” +He looked very hard at me then for a few moments, when the captain +called him away; and for some time I wondered why he had stared at me +so fixedly; when all at once I realized that he meant hawk, not auk! +Latitude, 34° 4′ north; longitude, 47° 15′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">May 20</span></p> + +<p>Light showers prevailed this morning early, but at ten the clouds +disappeared, leaving a sky of deep cobalt and a glorious, sparkling +sea. Fresh winds from east-northeast blew all day, giving us frequently +ten knots, the ship driving along with the even, modulated swing of a +pendulum. The mate says that Captain Scruggs is so lucky in making fast +passages that in New York they say that he carries a fair wind in his +pocket and spills it out when necessary. However true this may be, the +direction of the wind could be easily improved at the present time, by +hauling more to the northward, so that we could come up a little; our +position, too, would be a far better one if we were five or six degrees +more to the eastward, as it is a little too soon to make so much +southing. <i>Nolens volens</i>, though, southeast has been our course +for some time, and the skipper jocosely remarks that he expects to see +San Roque this time.</p> + +<p>We are now in the approximate position of the American iron ship “May +Flint” (late steamer “Persian Monarch”), one of the largest sailing +vessels under our flag, when she was hove down and dismasted about a +year ago in a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</span> cyclone. Captain Nickels subsequently accomplished so +fine a piece of seamanship that a short account of the whole affair +might not prove uninteresting. The vessel left Philadelphia bound +to Hiogo with a cargo of case-oil on August 21, and on September 8, +about four hundred miles from the Azores, she encountered a gale +which gradually increased to a tremendous hurricane, in the centre of +which she became involved; and shortly afterward she was hove on her +beam ends and the fore and maintop-masts and mizzentop-gallant-masts, +together with all standing gear above the lower mast-heads went by +the board. Her condition was really terrible, as all hands were in +momentary expectation of seeing some of the broken spars alongside +stave in the hull, as the wreckage was battering and thumping +furiously against the ship. A steamer was sighted later on,—the +“Craftsman,”—which stood by the “Flint” till the weather moderated, +and then offered to tow her to New York. This offer Captain Nickels +refused, though at their request he transshipped his two passengers, +one a Boston and the other a Chicago man, and they returned to New York +on the “Craftsman.” It is reasonable to presume that neither of these +individuals will ever step over the side of another sailing ship.</p> + +<p>When the cyclone had passed and the ship had come up on an even keel, +Captain Nickels surveyed the wreck aloft and then decided on his +course, which was as follows: a part of the spars and rigging having +been saved, a foretop-mast was made from a spare spar, and the stump +of an old mizzentop-gallant-mast was used for a foretop-gallant-mast. +The ship carried a spare fore-yard, the lower foretop-sail-yard was +intact, and the upper maintop-sail-yard was utilized for an upper fore; +the foretop-gallant- and royal-yards were saved, thus square-rigging +the vessel forward. A portion of the main-yard, which was broken,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</span> was +used for a maintop-mast, leaving the mainmast fore-and-aft rigged. +The mizzentop-gallant-mast, which was apparently hopelessly damaged, +was fished and repaired together with all the yards below it, so that +the vessel was square-rigged forward and aft, but schooner-rigged +amidships, presenting a most extraordinary appearance. She looked at a +distance somewhat like two hermaphrodite brigs, yet after the repairs +had been made, which occupied fifteen days, she was successfully +navigated into New York harbor, a distance of two thousand two hundred +miles, and on one day logged the extremely good run of two hundred and +forty knots. For this fine performance the underwriters presented the +gallant captain with a superb gold watch, and well he deserved it, +for it was an act of seamanship so bold and unusual as to command the +applause of Captain Nickels’s fellow ship-masters, a class of men who, +as a rule, are extremely reserved in their expressions of approbation. +Latitude, 31° 34′ north; longitude, 42° 10′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">May 21</span></p> + +<p>Last night was windy, with a severe squall at one o’clock in the +morning, with much rain, and we haven’t seen the sky-sails since six +last evening.</p> + +<p>As I was leaning against the rail yesterday afternoon, looking at the +mizzen-stay being set up by the starboard watch, the captain came up +and said, “I’ve found out we’ve got another cap’n aboard, a fellow +called Murphy, I believe. I’m going to send him aft to run the ship, +and I’m going forrad to sleep in the fo’c’sle.” The skipper has a +curious way of saying such things, and we never know whether to smile +or not. Presently, though, he cast joking aside and began to blackguard +Murphy in the language of the deep sea, saying that when he (the +captain) had gone forward to see that the regular weekly washing out +of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</span> forecastle was properly done, some of the men did not seem to +relish the process, and he heard Murphy grumble. Now, when a foremast +hand has been somewhat disagreeable for a few days, and at length finds +audible fault with various things, it is almost certain that some one +hour in the succeeding twenty-four will be unpleasant for him. Thus +with Murphy. After supper we were sitting on the deck-house, when +Captain Scruggs came up and said that at eight bells the decision would +be reached, whether or not there were two captains aboard. He was very +nervous and couldn’t sit still; which reminds me that I have never +yet seen a long-voyage skipper who wasn’t nervous at even the mildest +encounter with the men.</p> + +<p>The evening shades fell early, by reason of heavy clouds, and at eight +o’clock it was dark. Word was passed forward that both watches were to +muster aft, and when eight bells had been struck, the eighteen seamen +(including the bosuns) came trooping down from forward and grouped +themselves at the after hatch. Here I sent my wife below, fearing +scenes which she ought not to witness; while the captain at the same +moment passed out of the cabin to the main deck and faced the men.</p> + +<p>It was an impressive, rugged scene. The wind was puffy and uncertain +and the decks were wet; and though it was too dark to see the men’s +expressions, their forms stood out clearly enough as they rolled from +side to side with the heave of the ship, two broad beams of light +shooting out from the cabin doors and illuminating the showers of +spray that flew incessantly over the weather side; the great main-sail +bridging over the scene with its huge curve, till lost in the gloom of +the upper sails.</p> + +<p>As soon as the captain appeared, he began to pace athwartships between +the hatch and the poop, keeping it up for several minutes in a dead +silence. How well he knows<span class="pagenum" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</span> how to handle a crew! Nothing is more +effective than such a silence, for it shows the men that the skipper is +about to act with deliberation. Suddenly he unexpectedly rapped out, +“Go forrad, the port watch”; and the nine men quickly disappeared, +wondrous glad to escape, no doubt. Now what the captain said to the +rest I could not hear, for the wind cut his words off short; but he +walked up among the men, shouldering his way roughly through them, +until he stood directly in front of Murphy, who, though putting on some +“side,” shrunk back from the glare that I knew shot from the old man’s +eye. He spoke to him in the fierce, intense tones of a thoroughly angry +man; and, after a considerable harangue, he seized Murphy by his nasal +extremity, the size of which afforded him excellent holding ground, and +led the recalcitrant youth around in a small circle, every few seconds +tweaking and twisting his nose, till I was surprised that it did not +part company with the rest of his face. This done, he sent the men +forward, entered the cabin, sat down, and joined us in a game of casino.</p> + +<p>At first this seemed a very puerile manner of administering punishment, +but it is considered wonderfully effective, and, in truth, it is +humiliating to be hauled about by the nose in the presence of one’s +companions. I had expected that Murphy would have been floored with a +belaying-pin, that handy instrument of correction which most American +masters and mates know so well how to wield. But Captain Scruggs seems +to be restraining himself, owing in part, no doubt, to our presence +on board, though chiefly to the space which the newspapers have +been devoting lately to aggravated cases of cruelty at sea. Indeed, +the skipper himself said the other day, “What’s a ship-master to do +nowadays, when the press jumps on him when he gets ashore?” He forgets +that if the said ship-master<span class="pagenum" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</span> conducted himself at sea like the captain +of a ship ought to, the press would have no cause for writing him up.</p> + +<p>The course has been poor, with the wind at times to the southward of +east, and, horrible to relate, we made a degree of westing in the +twenty-four hours. If we don’t have a better chance than this, we’ll be +jammed on San Roque in earnest. Latitude 28° 30′ north; longitude, 43° +west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">May 22</span></p> + +<p>It is necessary here to make an announcement of a very painful nature, +an announcement of a fact so lamentable and unfortunate that for a +long while we tried to believe that it could not be. Captain Scruggs +has several times in the last week been very much under the influence +of strong liquor! More than once we have noticed that he exhibited a +strange uncertainty in his gait, and for two days he has been unusually +aggressive and sometimes silly in his arguments. Still, neither of us +would acknowledge to the other that which we knew in our hearts was +true, until last evening at supper his conduct compelled us to admit +the shocking fact that the master of the ship in which we have but +just commenced one of the longest and stormiest of voyages was plainly +drunk. He had to steady himself against the mizzen-mast at the end +of the dining-room before he could sit down, and during the meal he +was for a time a drooling idiot. His chief amusement seemed to lie in +spilling small quantities of maple syrup over the table-cloth, in which +he then dabbled with his fingers, like a boy with his feet in a puddle. +The syrup appeared to revive memories of his childhood, for he told +us stories of his passion for this fluid when a youth. Said he: “Why, +I used to go out in the woods, tap a maple-tree, and let two gallons +of surrup run into me.” No one said a word. “Two gallons!” glaring<span class="pagenum" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</span> +fiercely at the mate, who, of course, didn’t offer any objection. +Then he caught sight of a small wash-tub, and, turning on the mate +again, cried out violently, “When I was a boy, I used to could drink +that right down full er maple surrup. This ’ere hain’t surrup; h’its +mucilage.” Here we excused ourselves and went on deck.</p> + +<p>Now, what is all this going to lead to? Pleasant thought, that of +knocking about in a gale of wind off Cape Horn with a groggy skipper in +charge! Indeed, when we first discovered his bibulous inclination, my +wife was in despair, and the only consolation we have is to be found +in the hope that the case of whiskey that we have seen is the only +one on board. We can account now, too, for the innumerable times that +the captain has popped into his little room, only to emerge in a few +seconds, smelling furiously of Florida-water. Well, we’ll probably have +fine, light weather through the northeast Trades, which we are now sure +that we have taken; and at the rate at which the grog is vanishing at +present, it will be gone before we reach the squally Doldrums, provided +that the skipper has but one case.</p> + +<p>In a copy of a nautical magazine on board, I saw an account of a +singular fact that occurred a short while ago. The British ship +“Crompton” was homeward bound a few months since, from Calcutta to +Dundee, when one morning Captain Lloyd sighted something ahead which +seemed to be either a capsized vessel or the back of a whale. As the +vessel approached, however, the captain saw that it was neither, but +a rock, about sixty feet long, eight feet high, and the same broad. +He could scarcely believe his senses, for the position of the rock +was 47° north and 37° 20′ west! Imagine a rock’s existing in the most +crowded ocean on the globe, almost every square mile of which it was +reasonable that at least one vessel had traversed, which had never been +seen or reported before! For some time Captain<span class="pagenum" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</span> Lloyd could not believe +that it really was a rock, and so to verify it he sailed as close to +it as possible; and as the morning was a perfectly clear one, and the +hour twenty minutes to eight, he was at last compelled to believe the +evidence of his eyes, that here was a large rock, extremely dangerous +to navigation, lying five hundred miles north-northwest of the Azores!</p> + +<p>Speaking of those balmy isles reminds one of that ardent, skilful +yachtsman, the Prince of Monaco. About two years ago, while prosecuting +some deep-sea soundings in the vicinity of the Azores on his steam +yacht, he found a bank or ledge which rose from a depth of about +two thousand fathoms to one of something like fifty fathoms, which, +like the aforementioned rock, had never been charted or reported. So +extremely zealous is the prince in his pursuit of knowledge concerning +the floor of the Atlantic, that he shortly afterward gave an order +for a twelve-hundred-ton steam yacht (he can well afford it!) fitted +with the most recent inventions in connection with deep-sea sounding +apparatus. I wonder whether he will use the machine for this purpose +invented by Captain Sigsbee, who commanded the battleship “Maine” at +the time of her destruction. It is said that Lord Kelvin, who, when +Sir William Thompson, invented the famous sounding machine which bears +his name, has stated that Captain Sigsbee has adopted an idea in +his apparatus which he (Lord Kelvin) had vainly sought for years to +utilize in his mechanism. If this be true, Captain Sigsbee has reason +to be a very proud man, for Lord Kelvin is, perhaps, the most learned +individual now living on hydro-dynamics and kindred sciences.</p> + +<p>Last voyage it took us exactly a month in which to reach this spot +where we are now, which illustrates how uncertain and erratic long +voyages are. All fear of being “stuck” in this region, as we were +before, has disappeared,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</span> for the Trades have come now without +question; and while they are quite fresh enough to suit us, we would +like to see the wind back two points to the northward. Latitude, 26° +18′ north; longitude, 41° 9′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">May 23</span></p> + +<p>Last night was a windy one, and in the middle watch we split the +mizzen-royal in a severe squall; so we took in the fore- and +main-royals, the sea being choppy and the vessel plunging a good +deal. It is customary to cut the light sails in such a manner that a +fore-sky-sail will answer for a mizzen-royal; therefore, toward the +end of the morning watch the fore-sky-sail was unbent and stretched +on the mizzen-royal-yard, the royals having been set again an hour or +so previously. It didn’t fit particularly well, but it will do until +to-morrow, when the royal will be repaired, as such work is not done on +Sunday unless in case of urgent need. Sometimes there is necessity for +hard work on the Sabbath aboard ship, such an instance having occurred +on the “Hosea Higgins” on her last homeward voyage from San Francisco. +It might be first observed that, though it is the custom to give the +men a holiday on Sunday, still if the captain orders anything done, he +must be obeyed without murmur. On this particular occasion, Captain +Scruggs saw fit to order one of the bosuns to do some work aloft, which +he refused. The skipper went down on the main deck then and spoke to +the man, a lusty young German, asking him why he refused to turn to.</p> + +<p>“Because it’s Soonday, zur,” he replied.</p> + +<p>“Sunday? Never heard of it. What is Sunday? Who told you anything about +it?” quizzed the old man.</p> + +<p>“I say, a man’s not supposed to turn to on Soonday, zur,” repeated the +bosun.</p> + +<p>“Oh, he’s not,” quoth the skipper; “then we always<span class="pagenum" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</span> put him where he’ll +have plenty of leisure. Mr. Goggins, the irons.”</p> + +<p>(This same mate came around from California in the “Higgins.”)</p> + +<p>The irons were brought, and the man, quietly enough, but with angry +eye and sneering lip, put his hands behind him; the irons were locked +on, and he was led down into the lazarette, where he sat calmly down, +and the key was turned. Six hours afterward the mate went to him with +some food and found that the man had in some way contrived to shift +his hands around in front and was disposed to be ugly. Therefore he +was taken up into the after part of the wheel-house (these structures +on American ships are divided into equal portions, one containing the +wheel and binnacle, the other the rudder-head, tiller, flag-locker, +etc.), where a staple was driven into a carling, to which the man’s +hands, still ironed, were secured, leaving him so that he could not +sit down, his wrists being about six inches above his head. Now, this +posture for twelve hours is enough to break the heart of a wild beast; +yet this bosun stood there without a word for thirty hours, refusing +food or drink during that time! At the end of every six hours or so the +mate went to him and asked if he had had enough, to which the Teuton +would answer “Naw.” His endurance yielded at the thirtieth hour and he +implored to be released, which he was six hours later, and for the rest +of the passage he was a model sailor.</p> + +<p>At this time we are on or near a favorite whaling ground, great +numbers of these leviathans being taken in this vicinity every year +by schooners. In the old days a first-class whaling bark cost about +thirty-five thousand dollars, and was manned by perhaps thirty Western +Islanders, or natives of the Azores. They were owned by companies who +supplied the vessels with provisions, clothes, and outfits,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</span> and also +advanced certain sums of money to captain and crew (which did not go to +crimps as it does now) while they were away on a three years’ cruise. +No wages were ever paid to any one, but all hands received a percentage +when the ship returned, the bulk, which remained, being divided among +the stockholders. The most lucrative whaling voyage of which there is +any record was made by the “Onward” of New Bedford, which, after a +forty-one months’ voyage, stocked two hundred and seventy-five thousand +dollars, the captain’s share alone amounting to thirty-three thousand. +More startling even than that is the fact that during the fifty-two +years which formed the golden era of Massachusetts’s whaling industry +the total value of whale products landed in New Bedford alone amounted +to one hundred and forty-five million dollars!</p> + +<p>We had quite an agreeable shock this morning when the carpenter walked +aft to breakfast with a clean, new, checked shirt on, it being Sunday. +He had combed the sawdust and other little inconveniences out of his +unctuous locks, and he made quite a respectable appearance as he +wabbled into the cabin.</p> + +<p>Fresh Trades blew all day, and we have made good a course about +south-southeast. Latitude, 23° 28′ north; longitude, 40° 15′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">May 24</span></p> + +<p>This day broke with a strong breeze and a cloudy sky; but, as usual, +the vapor cleared away at ten o’clock and a superb afternoon followed.</p> + +<p>Nearly all wooden ships have to be pumped out twice every day, once +in the morning watch and again at six in the evening. It is almost +impossible to build a tight wooden vessel of any size, and the rougher +the sea the more water she will make, on account of laboring. Of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</span> +course, the leakage varies greatly, but I suppose that our own is an +average one, about one thousand strokes of the pumps being necessary +to free the ship at each session of thirty minutes, and the aperture +through which the water escapes is about as large as a fire-hose.</p> + +<p>Last evening, sadly needing exercise, I descended to the main-deck +after supper and announced to Jimmie Rumps, the young starboard watch +bosun, that it was my intention to assist in pumping ship, if the men +had no objection; at which they smiled, while Rumps assured me that any +such assistance would be eagerly welcomed. A ship’s pumps are worked +by means of handle-bars attached to large, heavy fly-wheels, six feet +in diameter; and the motion of pumping is similar to the old-fashioned +way of lifting rock out of an excavation by man-power derricks. I +therefore grasped the handle-bar with the reckless assurance of a +man who knows not what he does, having opposite to me a raw-boned, +powerful Englishman, Coleman. “Shake her up” came from the second +mate in another moment; and, urged by the strong arms of the men, the +great wheels began to slowly revolve. As moments passed, though with +no indication of acceleration in the speed, I began to fear that after +all I was not to find much exercise in this way, when all at once there +was a distinct increase in the movement, and my breath came shorter and +quicker. Faster and yet faster flew the iron handles till we must have +been doing sixty revolutions to the minute. I was nearly pitched off +my feet at every turn, and my head commenced to swim. Usually, at the +end of fifteen minutes, a halt is called for a breathing-spell; but now +we went on and on with no signs of cessation, and the men wrought with +wooden faces. Then instantly I saw that they were having their joke, +initiating me, as it were, and that they had no intention of resting +till the trick was over. The<span class="pagenum" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</span> pace was quite frightful; but I decided +to faint on the deck rather than yield. Round went the relentless, +cruel handles, carrying me with them, like a nautical Don Quixote +on the windmill, while Jimmie Rumps, that young limb of Satan, made +facetious observations, at which the men smiled compassionately.</p> + +<p>“Fine exercise this, mister”; and, “How’d you like to do this when +we’re turnin’ the Corner with two feet of water on deck?”</p> + +<p>A ghastly smile was the only answer that I could summon, and in five +minutes more I should certainly have succumbed to dizziness and want +of breath, when I heard the voice of the mate, sounding strange and +distant, “That’ll do the pumps.” I let go the handle, grinned like +a skull to show how happy I was, summoned all my strength, tottered +to the poop ladder, crawled up, fell into a deck-chair and for five +minutes endured the bitter agonies of a man thoroughly “pumped.” This +was a good deal better than giving in, however, and it is my intention +to hammer away at it for the rest of the voyage.</p> + +<p>To-day the sun was overhead at noon, the declination and latitude being +the same. We made a somewhat better course during the past twenty-four +hours, about south 30° east, and a heavy bank in the northeast presages +a breeze from that quarter, so that we may come up a couple of points +farther. The captain continues his libations with no indication of a +change; evil as the thing is, though, there is some compensation in it +for us, as he is usually asleep in his room all day. An ill wind, and +so on. Latitude 20° 3′ north; longitude, 38° 23′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">May 25</span></p> + +<p>Last night we celebrated the Queen’s birthday for Mr. Goggins’ +sake; and the old man had a fête all by himself<span class="pagenum" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</span> with a bottle of +Monongahela. The first part of the proceedings consisted in burning +balls of tar-soaked oakum mounted on sticks secured to the weather +rail. Each ball was of the size of man’s head and burned with a +brilliant flame that lit up the whole ship with a red glare, sending +now and then a stream of sparks across the deck, quite alarming till we +remembered that everything in the waist was drenched with spray.</p> + +<p>The second portion of the festivities was more elaborate and was begun +by carrying a barrel of oiled shavings up on the poop. The open end +of the barrel was headed up and a hole a foot square was then cut in +the side. Of course, the captain insisted on performing this piece of +carpentry, and he entertained himself for ten minutes, jabbing away at +the hard wood with a little key-hole saw till he was in quite a frenzy.</p> + +<p>“Now gimme a match and I’ll show you some fireworks,” said he.</p> + +<p>“Hi don’t think it’ll burn, Cap’n Scruggs: the hole ain’t big enough,” +meekly observed the mate.</p> + +<p>“I didn’t ask you whether you thought ’twould burn or not,” responded +the skipper, who had snapped about an inch off the end of his little +saw. “I asked you for a match.”</p> + +<p>Finally the contents of the barrel were ignited, and the skipper, +seizing the chimes at one end, bade the mate do the same at the other; +then to lift it horizontally, swing it to and fro, and when he said +“three,” to let it go over the stern. But the mate got it wrong in some +way, and let go at “two,” and as the captain hung on, there was a good +deal of excitement for a few seconds. The barrel all but hauled him +overboard after breaking off two or three finger nails, banged loudly +against the counter, turned over, and dropped into the water hole-side +down.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</span></p> + +<p>The scene which followed was too harrowing for reproduction, but it was +interrupted by the loud voice of the lookout, “Light right ahead, sir.” +Instantly all was silent. The skipper jumped up on the deck-house, +while the mate ran for the top-gallant-forecastle, whence he shouted +back, “All right, sir, she’s keeping away”; and in a few minutes, a +bark of about seven hundred tons under topsails passed us to leeward, +by the wind, bound north.</p> + +<p>Mr. Goggins entertained us at dinner to-day with a new version of an +old sea-fight. The captain did not come to the table until supper, +owing to his celebrations, which he prolonged far into the night; so, +after the soup had been cleared away at dinner, the mate began, “Did +you ever hear, sir, and ma’am, of the true ’istory about Sims (Semmes) +in the battle of the ‘Kearsarge’ and ‘Halabama’?” “No,” said I; “let us +have it.”</p> + +<p>“’Twon’t take long to tell,” said the mate. “He warn’t in the fight at +all. Where was he? Aboard o’ that English yacht, the ‘Greyhound,’ or +whatever she was, a-lookin’ on! Yes, sir; I was in Liverpool then, and +he come in and went on board the ‘Great Western,’ and her cap’n spit in +his face, and him without the courage to reply.”</p> + +<p>Mr. Goggins had a sousing yesterday which diverted all hands for some +time. He was coming down from forward on the weather side, with that +peculiar confidence assumed by captains and mates when the spray is +flying, as if it were impossible for a drop of water to strike them. +The mate had reached the main hatch, when he heard the swash of an +unusually heavy sea, and casually turned his head in time to see a +perfect storm of spray flying down upon him. It hit him fairly between +the shoulders. He staggered, fluttered about for a moment, and then +flapped heavily and helplessly against the hatch-combing,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</span> where he sat +up finally in a foot of water, drenched to the bone.</p> + +<p>Our fine breeze holds, but we are still hard on the wind; course, +southeast by south, true. Latitude, 17° 15′ north; longitude, 36° 50′ +west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">May 26</span></p> + +<p>Last night was a squally one and the sky-sails were furled early in the +evening, hands being stationed at the royal-halliards as well, until +they, too, were stowed at three in the morning.</p> + +<p>We had an accident yesterday afternoon, which, though comparatively +trivial, occasioned some lively work. My wife and I were playing +backgammon at the forward end of the deck-house in the first dog watch, +and everything was running very smoothly, when, with a snap and a +rattle of chain links, the lee maintop-gallant-sheet was carried away. +In a second there was an uproar. Two men jumped with great alacrity +into the weather rigging and in a few minutes were astride of the lee +upper maintop-sail-yard-arm, working like demons, with the long length +of chain sheet waving and slashing among the braces as the ship rolled +in the beam seas. Louis, the Frenchman, swung himself into the rigging +immediately afterward, stationing himself on the royal-yard-arm, +followed by Mr. Rarx and three other men.</p> + +<p>It wasn’t long before the work of repair was progressing +satisfactorily, when the skipper appeared at the cabin door, and, +without preliminary, commenced to shake things up a little. He shook +with such success that in three or four minutes Jimmie Rumps began to +simply hop into the air at intervals, the men were reduced to idiots, +while Mr. Goggins charged about, gulping with excitement; for the +captain would sandwich in such observations as, “I wonder<span class="pagenum" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</span> whether +I shipped you for a mate or a farmer”; and requesting him, in soft +but deadly tones, to be “good enough to secure that sheet so it’ll +hold till to-morrow, anyway.” After snarling everything up into a +hundred grannies, Captain Scruggs vanished, and the work proceeded +quietly. The only man who kept his head was the second mate. This +French seaman, Louis Jacquin, is an ideal sailor. He is built like an +ox, short and very broad, with a bull neck thrust well down between +massive shoulders, a back all corrugated with muscle, and, what is +very remarkable in a sailor, large, strong legs. He is as swarthy as +a Spaniard, with blue-black hair and short moustache, and a wide, +powerful jaw, with a pleasant scowl, if such can exist, on his lean, +determined face. He is a man to lean on in an accident.</p> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp90" id="i_302a" style="max-width: 137.375em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/i_302a.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption class="caption"><p>The ablest seaman in the ship</p></figcaption> +</figure> + +<p>We were glad to hear that when repairs had been made, the men were +going to mast-head the top-gallant- and royal-yards to the stimulus of +chanties; and sure enough, when the top-gallant-halliards were manned, +the invigorating strains of “A Long Time Ago” broke out in a hoarse but +agreeable barytone. A sailor’s chorus of this sort is a very inspiring +thing. The whole of the crew, eighteen brawny fellows, were stretched +in line, clear across the deck, with David MacFoy, the lusty-voiced +Scot, at the end, to sing the verses; and at the conclusion of each +line a roar would go ringing over the water that must have been heard +behind the horizon, the halliards coming in a full yard at each swing. +The main-royal went aloft to the tune of “A Poor Old Man,” and the boys +seem to find so much pleasure in their chanties and their faces so +shine with merriment that even the sight of them is enough to put a man +in a good humor.</p> + +<p>Over against this pleasant diversion looms up gloomily to-day’s evening +repast. The captain had again imbibed<span class="pagenum" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</span> enough to make him quarrelsome, +and during the half-hour that we were at table the mate was so jerked +about at the end of the skipper’s tongue that, objectionable as he +is, we could but pity him, for in five minutes he was in a running +perspiration. The only one who enjoyed the situation was the little +Malay steward, whose face shone with delight as he moved noiselessly +about the table with his gentle “scuse” (excuse), which he utters +whenever he places a plate before us. It might be stated that the mate +and the steward of a ship are at perpetual war; for the former always +has charge of the beef, pork, and flour, which he invariably grudges to +the steward.</p> + +<p>The skipper has surprised us by handing me his sextant now and then, at +about a quarter to noon, with the injunction, “Just look out for her +to-day,” and has then disappeared below, to lie concealed often for +several hours. We made the discovery to-day that he does this to avoid +making himself ridiculous when taking the sun; for naturally a man +requires all his faculties to know exactly when the sun is at meridian. +Latitude, 14° 34′ north; longitude, 35° 12′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">May 27</span></p> + +<p>Our good luck still follows us, for the Trades are stronger than ever. +We made two hundred and twenty-two miles in the twenty-four hours, +and for the last ten days our average daily run has been one hundred +and ninety miles. Not very many vessels can show such a record in +the northeast Trades at the end of May, and while two hundred and +twenty-two miles would be merely a fair run with a free wind, it is +extremely good work close-hauled with the leeches of the sky-sails +lifting. It is true that we are still four degrees too far west for +this latitude, but I expect that we’ll fetch by San Roque all right +anyhow. “Where will<span class="pagenum" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</span> we lose the Trades?” is in every one’s mouth; +forty eight hours will, no doubt, see the end of them, and then for the +Doldrums and rain. It is very hot now, but the atmosphere is quite dry.</p> + +<p>The captain hasn’t boozed any all day, and at dinner he was in normal +condition, and we had a long talk about the Scotch clippers of forty +and fifty years ago. I asked him which he thought was the fastest +sailing ship ever launched; he was in a good humor and answered +pleasantly, “Well, that’s a big question. Some will tell you that +the ‘Sovereign of the Seas’ was the smartest; others, the ‘Andrew +Jackson’; some, the ‘Flying Cloud,’ which went out to San Francisco in +eighty-five days, twenty-one hours, in 1857. These were all American +ships, as I suppose you know; but the fastest ship, I think, that ever +left the ways was the ‘Lothair,’ of Aberdeen, and I believe she was +faster than that other Scotchman, the ‘Thermopylæ,’ with her sixty days +from London to Melbourne. I’ll tell you what happened to me once: I was +second mate of a Newburyport ship, and we were running our easting down +bound out to Canton, and were somewhere near Tristan d’Acunha, when we +sighted a vessel astern. It was blowing hard from the nor’west, and +the next time I looked, a couple of hours later, there was the ship +close on our quarter, and we doing twelve knots. ‘Holy jiggers,’ says +I to the mate, ‘there’s the “Flyin’ Dutchman.”’ ‘Naw,’ says he, ‘its +the “Thermopylæ.”’ But when she was abeam a little later, she hoisted +her name, the ‘Lothair,’ and its been my opinion ever since that she +was making mighty close to seventeen knots.” Then I asked him what +he thought of the runs of some of our old tea-clippers of from four +hundred to four hundred and forty miles. “Don’t believe it,” was all +he said. It is very possible that the “Lothair” was doing better than +sixteen knots at<span class="pagenum" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</span> that time, and one of the most prominent young naval +architects in New York told me once that if he got the order, he could +design a sailing vessel which, under favorable conditions, would log +eighteen knots.</p> + +<p>The best authentic day’s run which I know of was made by the ship in +which we sailed from New York to Calcutta three years ago, on her next +eastern voyage to Anjer. She was running her easting down in ballast +not far from Amsterdam Island, and from noon to noon on one occasion +she sailed three hundred and fifty-one miles, an average of fifteen +miles an hour; I mean knots, of course. Captain Kingdon wrote to me +of this performance from Passaroean, and asserted positively that it +was done by some of the best observations which he ever got in the +Southern Ocean, and that dead reckoning had nothing to do with it. +Indeed, that whole passage was a very quick one, as he went out to Java +in eighty-three days from New York, and broke the record, as far as +he knew, from the longitude of Cape Agulhas to Anjer, having covered +that immense distance in twenty-one days. I told Captain Scruggs about +this, and he doubted it, until he learned the vessel’s name. “Oh,” said +he, “the ‘Mandalore’; well, maybe she did. I saw her in the dry-dock +once, and there never was such a bottom on a merchant ship; ’twas like +a yacht’s.” And, in truth, the handsomest vessel which I ever saw, +taken as a whole, alow and aloft, was the “Mandalore” of London, built +at Stockton-on-Tees. Seen, as we often saw her afterwards, moored in +the Hooghly at Calcutta, among scores of the finest sailing ships in +the world, she was the star of the fleet, the pride and very life of +her captain. Poor, dear old Kingdon! The voyage on which he broke the +record from Good Hope to the Straits of Sunda was the last he ever +made. The “Mandalore” sailed from Banjoewangie, bound to Boston on +the return passage, but called<span class="pagenum" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</span> a few weeks later at Table Bay with +the captain sick. He pluckily continued, though against the doctor’s +orders, but was soon afterwards landed at St. Helena ill with cancer, +the vessel proceeding in charge of the mate. Captain Kingdon then went +by steamer to London <i>via</i> Madeira, but was too far advanced in +life for an operation, so he was ordered to Cairo, in the hope that the +dry atmosphere would prolong his life. But his constitution was not +able to hold out much longer, and two months after his arrival in Egypt +died Ray Kingdon, true friend, master mariner, gentleman. Latitude, 11° +25′ north; longitude, 33° 14′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">May 28</span></p> + +<p>The wind god is so exceedingly gracious to us at present that I +cannot but think that he is saving himself to swoop down upon us in +fell wrath at the Horn. Here we are bowling merrily along within five +hundred miles of the equator, doing two hundred and twenty miles in the +twenty-four hours, with an unlimited prospect of wind ahead; and if we +could maintain this speed of nine knots, we would cross the line on +Sunday, nineteen days from New York. There are sure to be several days +of calms between the Trades, though, so let us call it twenty-five days.</p> + +<p>During the whole of yesterday the captain kept as sober as a lord +chancellor, until ten o’clock last night, when he took a drink, which +set him off again. He was very talkative when we left the deck at +10.30, and the last thing that I remember before dropping off to sleep +was, “You’ll have an easier time of it if you break a few of their +—— —— heads.” This to the second mate after he had had two more +drinks. We knew by this he was in for another round of festivities, and +my wife said this morning that he<span class="pagenum" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</span> was charging around the cabin all +night, snoring and groaning, falling over camp-chairs and door-sills. +I have known him to sink into a stupor on the cabin sofa, shoot off +with a whoop in a lurch of the ship, wallow on the floor till he struck +the table-legs, and then peacefully continue his slumbers in that +attitude. He doesn’t like my mixing with the men so much, especially +when pumping-ship; he is very suspicious, and said last evening that +he shouldn’t think that I’d want to come into contact with such men, +forgetting how much more interesting they are than he is.</p> + +<p>If sailors can be induced to talk, they are the most entertaining +people as a class which it is possible to find. But it is very hard +for a stranger to break the ice with them; and if the stranger should +be a gentleman it makes it twice as hard, for they will always be +extremely reserved in his presence. The only way to do if you want +them to talk freely among themselves (which is much the most amusing) +is to ask them questions and try to start conversations with them at +every opportunity; generally, at the end of a week, they will see that +you really like to converse with them, the ice will gradually melt, +and from that time forward, if you should ever feel gloomy and sulky, +go down on the main-deck and stand by the galley during the second +dog-watch, and listen to the witty passes at each other; in fifteen +minutes you will be shaking with laughter, for theirs is real humor.</p> + +<p>At the pumps this evening I asked the Frenchman several questions, and +found him not at all averse to talking, though his English is very +bad. In speaking of the Southern Ocean, he said that his preference +lay in favor of the Horn voyages, saying that the Good Hope seas were +too short, meaning that in the event of a very heavy sea it is best +to have as long a one as possible. Probably he was thinking of the +Agulhas Bank, where there is at times<span class="pagenum" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</span> possibly the most dangerous sea +in the world,—a Bay of Fundy sea multiplied by ten. Across this bank, +in a westerly direction, flows a swift current that issues from the +Mozambique Channel, called now the Agulhas Current, and this, meeting +the westerly gales, produces enormous, hollow seas, from which no +vessel, however buoyant, can keep free.</p> + +<p>What a splendid fellow this Gaul is! What a back and legs! and his +wrists are as large as some men’s ankles. He has a really engaging +smile, too, in spite of his bulldog jaws and shaggy brows. Opposite to +me to-day pumped Jimmie Rumps. Curiously enough, he is the only sailor +whom I have ever heard swear in joking among themselves, however they +may talk alone in the forecastle, and he does so because he thinks +that it is big. “There’s a fellow I’d like to see on the pumps,” he +remarked, quite an ugly look coming into his face; and, glancing +astern, I saw the skipper descending the weather-poop ladder. Though +many of the men were evidently of this opinion, not a word was said +by any of them; for might I not repeat their sentiments aft in the +cabin for aught that they knew? Therefore the observation was received +with scowls and a dead silence, which continued until Rumps again +broke in with, “Last voyage I was in the American ship ‘Ivanhoe,’ and +I was nearly starved to death!” “Eh?” said Louis, sharply. “I said +I was starved in the ‘Ivanhoe,’” repeated Jimmie. “Oh,” replied the +Frenchman; “I t’ought you meant zees sheep; you’ll find no bettair food +anywhere zan here.” It is not often that a sailor will acknowledge +this, and it speaks very well for Louis.</p> + +<p>“Say,” Jimmie went on, “I’ve had enough of the sea, and if I can, I’m +going home to Brooklyn on eight wheels [<i>i.e.</i>, railway car]; and +lemme give you a tip on San Francisco; don’t you miss the baths, though +it’ll cost<span class="pagenum" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</span> you ten cents, and a quarter for a fresh-water swim. And, +say, you go over and see Oakland; but I dunno if they’ve got the fare +down to five yet.”</p> + +<p>It is rather surprising that Captain Scruggs doesn’t take an interest +in keeping track of his various voyages, plotted off on the different +charts, as Captain Kingdon did. The latter used some which had sixteen +voyages pricked off on them as plain as ink could make it, forming a +very useful aid for future work, as he could select the average from +them all, for each voyage as it progressed. Our skipper, however, takes +no such pains, and so far hasn’t even looked at an ordinary chart. +To-day my wife asked him to show her where we were, at noon, and he +hauled out from under the sofa an old, ragged, hydrographic wind-chart, +and after much stertorous breathing he managed to stab the position +on the paper with the dividers, being so palsied from last night’s +potations that he had to steady one hand with the other before he could +hit the chart within several degrees of where we were. Latitude, 8° 24′ +north; longitude, 31° 40′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">May 29</span></p> + +<p>The end of the Trades is at hand. After blowing us through nearly +twenty-five degrees of latitude, the wind began to let go yesterday +afternoon and to simultaneously haul to the southward, while an immense +pall of blue-black cloud rose slowly out of the southwest and solemnly +spread itself over the clear sky, with an indication of thunder-squalls +in the “white heads” which crowned its summit. Sure enough, in the +middle watch there was some mild thunder and lightning, but hardly any +rain. However, a drizzle started later on, and as the morning was a +soft one and the atmosphere almost as heavy and hot as the steam from a +kettle,—a typical tropical morning,—the men were<span class="pagenum" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</span> turned to scrubbing +the paint-work generally. It was a very long, tedious job, for every +particle of white paint had been transformed into a dirty drab in the +New York docks. I never saw such a change in a vessel as the men, +starting at the taffrail, worked their way forward—poop, bulwarks, +boats, skids, everything putting off the grimy look, and assuming in +its stead a glossy whiteness which almost hurt the eye.</p> + +<p>It is strange that we have no head-pump here. On the “Mandalore” there +was a very powerful one, worked by four men, and a line of two-inch +hose that reached to the after hatch. Our method of washing down the +decks, though, is as primitive as irrigation in India, for all the +water must be hoisted over the side in a canvas bucket and dumped into +a cask, whence it is taken out as wanted.</p> + +<p>Speaking of the “Mandalore” reminds me of a gruesome tale which MacFoy, +the bosun, told me last evening. So broad is his brogue that it was +rather hard to understand him, but I gathered the following: One +day, about nine years ago, there started from Hamburg, bound to San +Francisco, the big Liverpool ship “Falls of Ayr.” The weather growing +very bad in the Channel, though, she up helm and ran back for the +Downs, to anchor till the gale should break. Shortly before she sailed +the “Mandalore” left Hull, also bound around the Horn to San Diego, on +what MacFoy said was her maiden voyage. After getting well out into +the Channel, though, and finding it as thick as pea-soup, she, too, +ran back for the Downs, and before anybody knew what was happening, +with a fearful crash she hit the “Falls of Ayr” head on, well aft on +the quarter, dividing her nearly in two and smashing her boats, which +she carried aft, Liverpool fashion. Very curiously, the “Ayr” had no +after companion-way, entrance to the main<span class="pagenum" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</span> cabin being effected solely +by means of the doors on the main-deck. These, being of iron, crumpled +like paper under the impact of collision, and then jammed, so that +in the hurry and confusion they baffled all attempts at opening, and +before anything could be done the ship foundered, carrying down with +her every soul aft,—captain, two mates, steward, and cook, caught +like flies in a trap. Nor was this all. Three boats had been broken +into match-wood, leaving but one unharmed, in which only a handful of +the men and two apprentices escaped. “And look again, sir,” continued +David, “she’s the unluckiest ship that ever left a yard. Two years +later she ran down a large Belfast ship off Pernambuco, one of the Star +Line,—I think ’twas the ‘Star of Greece,’—though both ships finally +made Buenos Ayres for repairs.”</p> + +<p>And this was the dear old “Mandalore” which carried us so happily +across thirteen thousand miles of ocean only a short time ago! We had +absolutely no suspicion of those accidents before, and I asked the +bosun if he couldn’t be mistaken, but he answered, “I never forget a +ship, sir; this one I mean is a London ship built at Stockton nine +years ago.” That settled it; but how strange that we should never have +heard of either case!</p> + +<p>There are two boxes of Sicilian oranges on board which are holding out +remarkably well; for though they are getting a little dry, not one has +so far spoiled. We also have good cool water to drink yet; for in spite +of the great heat of the last two days, it has not penetrated the big +galvanized iron tanks below. Indeed, the water is so much cooler than +the air that a blur forms on the outside of a tumbler. But this will +soon change, and we will have drinking-water at a temperature of ninety +degrees for a fortnight. Latitude, 6° 5′ north; longitude, 30° 30′ +west.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</span></p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">May 30</span></p> + +<p>This afternoon was very hot and calm, and we had the first hard rain +of the voyage. As we had had no wind at all previous to this shower, +the courses had been hauled up to prevent chafing; but some of the +buntlines and clew-lines had been let go when the rain came, although +as there was not much wind in the squall, the men were allowed to +drop braces and everything else and run for tubs and buckets to be +filled with fresh water, so that for the next thirty minutes the decks +presented a remarkable sight. The head-yards were braced up, while +the main- and after-yards were still squared, with the starboard clew +of the foresail, both clews of the mainsail, and the port-clew of the +cross-jack hauled up, while the decks were covered with a wonderful +snarl of ropes. However, we filled every bucket, tub, and cask on +board, while the men ran for their soiled clothes and spread them +out all over the forward deck to soften in the warm rain, the mate +producing three pairs of old trousers which he carefully deposited +on the after-hatch. Odd notion, this washing of ordinary clothes; I +had never heard of such a thing. The rain lasted for an hour, and the +captain had the bathtub filled and I had a delightful fresh-water +bath, the temperature of the rain being 79°. Only those who have been +compelled to bathe for weeks in brine can appreciate the luxury of +fresh water.</p> + +<p>Our calm reminded the mate at dinner of a curious circumstance which +happened once in the Pacific. Quite a fleet of ships started out +together from San Francisco bound around the Horn; and, keeping well +together, they all fell into a calm streak just north of the line which +lasted for twelve days. During this time several ships passed this +fleet about fifty miles to the westward of them (among which was the +“Wandering Jew,” an American ship, since<span class="pagenum" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</span> burned) with half a gale of +wind! This story seems to be quite true, as the “Jew’s” log-book for +that day showed that she was a degree west of the becalmed vessels, and +mentioned that they stowed the fore and mizzentop-gallant sails. A fact +of this sort shows what different weather conditions may exist at a +distance of less than one hundred miles.</p> + +<p>We witnessed a punishment this afternoon which I thought was never +resorted to except in the navy; and, even there, the construction of +a modern war-ship necessarily precludes it. We were sitting at the +break of the poop, when we saw a man coming down from aloft in a hurry, +as though he were especially anxious to reach the deck; when, to our +surprise, no sooner had he done so than MacFoy gruffly said to him, +“Back you go; and this time to the sky-sail-yard; d’ye hear?”</p> + +<p>So up he went again (it was Louis Eckers, the youngest and dullest +seaman in the ship) till he reached the main-royal, when of course he +had to “shin” up to the sky-sail-yard, as there are never any ratlines +above the royals. Presently, though, he stood upon the yard, one +hundred and eighty feet above the water, grasping the slender sky-sail +pole with one arm, and surveying the deck quite comfortably. When he +had been there about half an hour, the bosun roared out “Come down”; +and it was not till then that we realized that he had been mast-headed +for bad conduct. It seems incredible that a punishment so humane should +be resorted to on a Yankee ship.</p> + +<p>The eating on board, aft at any rate, is still extremely good, +particularly the coffee, which is put up in convenient packages for +sea use and labelled “Best Maracaibo”; thus there is no deception, the +greater part of “Mocha” having its origin in Central or South America. +Every day at meals the mate seems to grow more hideous and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</span> grotesque, +and he is the only man whom I ever saw to whom the latter adjective +could be applied. His nose, which is enormous, is canted far over to +the right; one nostril is the size of a slate-pencil, while the other +would fit a small gas-pipe, and his dense, kinky moustache becomes +at meals the lurking place of various liquids and solids; while ears +like water-lilies expand from his head like those of a bat. His table +manners are actually shocking, though in some ways he is perhaps not +much worse than the skipper, who contrives to decorate the lapels of +his coat with a spray of soup at each dinner. Some men embellish the +region of their waist-bands with various fluids, but Captain Scruggs is +dexterous enough to decorate his entire front with such things.</p> + +<p>Mr. Goggins has a stock phrase which is simply too absurd, when he +declines anything further at table. Suppose the captain to say, “Have +some more potatoes, sir?” he will reply, closing one eye and leering +at the dish with the other, “No-o-o, sir, I thank you, sir; I’ve ’ad +sufficient, sir, I thank you, sir.” This answer is invariable, and +it is never abbreviated or curtailed in any way. He has also of late +acquired the extremely objectionable habit of coming to the table with +bare feet, which I am going to ask the skipper if he cannot prevent. +Latitude, 5° 16′ north; longitude, 30° 5′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">May 31</span></p> + +<p>Our progress for this twenty-four hours was not such as would delight +the heart of a steam-yachtsman, for our difference of latitude was +precisely nothing, and we made twenty-five miles of westing, which +would indicate a current. The heat, of course, is great, and also the +oppressiveness, everything being indescribably sticky and soft. The +temperature of the sea has risen to correspond with<span class="pagenum" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</span> that of the air, +both standing at about eighty-four degrees; severe rain-squalls with +little or no wind necessitate oil-skins on deck, for if your clothes +get wet they will be hours drying in this weather; indeed, they will +not dry at all, unless you put them on, when the heat of the body +evaporates the moisture. As we have been several days now in very hot +weather, we have had plenty of opportunity of comparing the cabins of +a wooden and an iron ship in the tropics. As might have been expected, +that of the “Higgins” is cooler than that of the iron “Mandalore”; +but the difference is surprisingly little, not more than two or +three degrees. The principal disparity we notice at night, as the +“Mandalore’s” top-sides used to retain the heat of the sun for so long +a period that it was frequently two o’clock in the morning before the +temperature fell perceptibly. The thermometer now in our room stands at +about 85° day and night as against 87° and 88° in the other ship.</p> + +<p>Yesterday we caught a dolphin. It was a true dolphin, <i>delphinus +delphis</i>, a mammal, the bottle-nose of sailors; seafaring people +giving the name to a small beautifully-colored fish, <i>coryphœna +hippuris</i>, which isn’t a dolphin at all.</p> + +<p>Scores of the big, graceful creatures had been disporting themselves +around the ship for several hours, as many as a dozen sometimes +simultaneously breaking the water in a space which apparently could +have been covered with a table-cloth. By and by they aroused the +blood-loving propensities of the mate, who forthwith rigged his harpoon +and stationed himself on the bowsprit-shrouds to watch for his prey. +Presently a dolphin shot under the martingale-boom, when zip, the heavy +iron flew through the air and passed completely through the unhappy +creature, whose blood instantly transformed the lovely blue of the sea +to a rich crimson. Here Mr. Goggins showed indications of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</span> insanity +and bawled for the watch, who came running up on the forecastle-head +with beaming faces. A dozen hands seized the harpoon-line, and a few +hearty pulls landed the dolphin alongside the starboard anchor amid +the wildest acclamations from the men. As he was to furnish fresh +food for them for several days, however, their joy was natural, and +he was dragged down on the main deck, cleaned, and skinned, which +latter process was accomplished by slitting the hide into longitudinal +sections, and then, starting each strip, three hands would take a +strong hold and with a hard wrench the strip or ribbon would be ripped +off with a noise like the tearing of heavy silk; one of the men, the +facetious Charley Neilsen, suggesting the propriety of starting a +chanty. After this had been accomplished, the carcass was suspended +from the mainstay, bearing a singular resemblance to a hind-quarter of +beef.</p> + +<p>This morning we had dolphin liver for breakfast, which could scarcely +have been detected from calf’s liver, and this, with some new-laid eggs +and salt mackerel, afforded us much the same breakfast which we would +have had ashore. “And the flesh you won’t know from beef; eh, cap’n?” +said Mr. Goggins. But we hardly believed this and our distrust was +justified when a strange dish was placed before the skipper at dinner. +“What on earth is that?” I asked.</p> + +<p>“Oh, this is a dolphin stew,” quoth Captain Scruggs, with much +satisfaction, “and that’s just pork fat on top to flavor it.”</p> + +<p>Whatever it was, the thing was in a deep yellow dish and looked like +a wretched meat pie, the slabs of pork taking the place of crust. But +yet stranger things were to be disclosed; for when the captain inserted +a spoon and sculled around in the recesses of the cavernous redoubt, +he brought to light and placed upon our plates irregular lumps of what +seemed to be coke, while some of the fragments were of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</span> that dead black +that pitch assumes, smooth in places, and in others sharp and ragged. I +can assure the reader that a dolphin ragout is a strange thing.</p> + +<p>It will no doubt surprise some people to know that the largest +steamship line in the world is the Hamburg-American Company. That is, +its vessels, which number one hundred and twenty-four, aggregate the +greatest number of tons. The new freight steamers “Pennsylvania” and +“Pretoria” of this line are mammoth vessels, and two more of the same +class are now building by the Vulcan Works at Stettin. Their gross +tonnage is about twelve thousand five hundred, with a displacement of +twenty-three thousand tons, and a carrying capacity of twenty thousand +tons. It is marvellous that a vessel should be able to carry, safely, +twenty-twenty-thirds of her own weight. The new White Star freighter +“Cymric” slightly exceeds these vessels in carrying capacity, and it +requires six hundred and twenty-five carloads of freight to fill her +enormous hull.</p> + +<p>Below will be found a list of the five largest steamship lines, with +the aggregate tonnage of each.</p> + + +<table class="autotable"> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> </td> +<td class="tdl"> Tons</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl">Hamburg American</td> +<td class="tdl">341,000</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl">British India</td> +<td class="tdl">295,000</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl">North German Lloyd</td> +<td class="tdl">266,000</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl">Peninsular and Oriental</td> +<td class="tdl">251,000</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl">Messageries Maritimes</td> +<td class="tdl">279,000</td> +</tr> +</table> + + +<p>The Cunard Line is simply swallowed up in these figures, and even the +White Star Line, with all its freighters, falls below them; while +the Japanese Nippon Yusen Kabushiki, with one hundred and sixty-two +thousand tons, exceeds the Cunard, which the average citizen would +perhaps place first on the list. Latitude 5° 16′ north; longitude, 30° +30′ west.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</span></p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">June 1</span></p> + +<p>Three weeks at sea this day, and we are involved in the vortex, so to +speak, of the Doldrums, with all which the name implies: intense heat, +sultry, humid atmosphere, a baking sun which glares down between heavy +showers and an almost total absence of wind. We were congratulating +ourselves last night, for at 8.30 we took a northeasterly wind, which +sent us along at seven knots through a sea spangled with phosphoric +jewels and leaving a wake of silvery light astern, like the trail of a +meteor.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">“About, about, in reel and route,</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The death-fires danced at night.”</span><br> +</p> + +<p>But on issuing from the companion-way this morning, lo! a great calm +was lying upon the waters; while the sun, like a globe of incandescent +gold, sent down terrible rays of heat, trebly intensified by the brassy +glare from the ocean. Perspiration dripped from the faces of the +weather-hardened seamen upon the least exertion, the pigs breathed in +short gasps and the poultry stalked about the deck with open bills.</p> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp90" id="i_018a" style="max-width: 145.9375em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/i_018a.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption class="caption"><p>The companion-way</p></figcaption> +</figure> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“Down dropt the breeze, the sails dropt down,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">’Twas sad as sad could be,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And we did speak only to break</div> + <div class="verse indent2">The silence of the sea.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“All in a hot and copper sky</div> + <div class="verse indent2">The bloody sun at noon</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Right up above the masts did stand,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">No bigger than the moon.”</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>A typical day of the low latitudes this. To me there is ever something +wonderfully impressive in an absolute calm, when no breath of wind +tarnishes the surface, and the only evidence that the ship is not +resting upon a plane of glass<span class="pagenum" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</span> is to be found in an occasional slow, +deep surge, hardly ever absent when in the profound depths of the ocean.</p> + +<p>All around the northern and eastern horizon hung superb, dense masses +of violet cloud, descending at intervals in steaming showers, while +broad on the port bow lay becalmed a large square rigger, hull down, +but lifting at times on the swell till we could see her courses +hanging in the buntlines in easy, graceful curves. Nearer and nearer, +by imperceptible degrees, she approached, till at eleven o’clock she +lay not more than three miles distant,—a magnificent four-masted +bark, bearing the stamp of the Clyde upon her powerful iron hull, and +presenting, with her double top-gallant-yards and splendid sheer, a +perfect illustration of the modern sailing ship, of the largest and +finest class. How beautiful and stately and proud she looked as she +floated along, apparently conscious that she was homeward bound, and +fully aware that she was one of the “swift shuttles of an empire’s +loom” which Kipling mentions in those fine verses “The Coastwise Lights +of England!”</p> + +<p>“I’ll bet there’s nothin’ ter eat aboard there but rice, hard bread, +and water,” said a croaking voice at my elbow, and the greasy +countenance of the grizzly old mate was thrust suddenly into the +foreground, totally destroying the beauty of the scene. Mr. Goggins +(always Mr.) never loses a chance to blackguard his native country, +which shows better than anything else what sort of creature he is. We +made our number to the ship, to which she replied with her own name, +but which we unfortunately could not make out, though, owing to the +position of our flags, she may have been able to do so.</p> + +<p>It is pleasant to study a great vessel like this, and to wonder how +old she is and what great gales she must have witnessed in her career, +walking up and down the world;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</span> now perhaps carrying five thousand +tons of grain from California to the starving multitudes in India; now +beating her way round tempestuous Agulhas, full to the hatches with tea +and silk; now struggling against the thunderous southwesterly monsoon +in the Bay of Bengal, homeward bound from Calcutta with twenty thousand +bales of flossy jute in her great body. God speed the gallant ship! +Latitude, 4° 24′ north; longitude, 29° 35′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">June 2</span></p> + +<p>This afternoon was a perfect scorcher, even worse than yesterday, and +the sun glittered down from a sky absolutely cloudless. Half a dozen +albacores gambolled lazily around the ship all day, sometimes casting +themselves several feet out of the water and then falling back with +such a splitting crack that it was marvellous how their skins withstood +it; and as these fish usually weigh about two hundred pounds and are +some five or six feet in length, they made quite a fascinating display.</p> + +<p>Last night we had what will probably be our last look at the pole-star +for a couple of months. The sky was very clear then in the north, +showing Polaris just above the horizon; theoretically, the altitude of +this star is the approximate latitude in, and it ought to be visible +at, the equator; but owing to vapors, etc., the polar star is generally +not visible south of 5° north.</p> + +<p>My wife is remarkably well in all this heat, a fact well illustrated +by her hearty appetite at meals, considering that what we eat for +dinner is usually supposed to be the accompaniments of cold weather. +Our noon repast to-day, as an example, comprised a liberal portion of +dense, steaming pea soup, hot Boston baked beans, and brown bread, +followed, topped off with, oh, heavens! smoking plum pudding and Edam +cheese in lumps as large as walnuts!<span class="pagenum" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</span> Most people would consider this +a throttling diet on the equator, and so it is, more or less; but +our appetites are so fine that just now we don’t mind such a little +inconvenience as Boston beans bubbling in pork fat.</p> + +<p>At supper the heat was worse than ever and we were hurrying to get on +deck, when my wife called attention to the strange, yellow tinge of a +cloud-bank right ahead, which we could see through the cabin door.</p> + +<p>“Oh, it’s nothing at all,” said the skipper; but, as if to nail his +words, there came a blast of cold wind, which heeled the ship over to +the scuppers and sent the captain and mate flying on deck. We followed +instantly, and beheld a thrilling sight. Ahead, from southwest to +east, the sky was covered with thick, windy-looking, saffron clouds, +rushing rapidly toward us; while the sea, as black as beneath a summer +thunder-squall, was whipped into angry, spitting white-caps, through +which we were just beginning to force our way. In the northwest, over +against this gloomy scene of dun vapor and dark, foam-flecked water, +gleamed the sun, just setting in golden splendor, encircled with +wonderful clouds of the most delicate blues and grays.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, the ship was in the wildest uproar which we had seen yet. +The newly washed clothes had been hung in lines across the poop, and +they were thrashing about like tattered flags; while ever and anon +detached clothespins whistled by, necessitating very lively dodging. On +the main-deck sixteen sailors were doing absolutely nothing but casting +off the wrong braces; while ropes were flying, sails were slatting and +booming, the bosuns were jumping about sulphurous with profanity, and +Mr. Goggins in five minutes had so far lost command of himself as to +lean helplessly against a capstan, quite speechless. Captain Scruggs +stood at the weather poop-ladder shouting commands, to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</span> which no one +paid any attention, such as, “Brace up those head-yards there; what’s +the matter with you, Mr. What’s-your-name? Come out o’ that trance and +git a watch-tackle on the foresheet. Hurry up that handy-billy now; +or maybe you want me to show you what a handy-billy is.” (This with +blighting sarcasm.) “Bosun, get that jib-topsail in!” The trumpeting +of a rogue elephant couldn’t have been worse than the roar in which +these orders were given, and the relief was infinite when objects began +to straighten themselves out and the skipper went below. At seven +o’clock we were doing eight knots, steering southwest by the wind. “The +southeast Trades,” said the captain, positively; “they always come in +a squall like that.” But, so far from this being the truth, the wind +had let go entirely at eleven, and we were once more lying idly on a +motionless sea. Latitude, 3° 50′ north; longitude, 29° 3′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">June 3</span></p> + +<p>Even Captain Scruggs’s proverbial good luck seems to have vanished, +for we have not made more than fifty miles per diem for several days, +usually drifting about all over the ocean without steerage-way, until +a squall comes along every two hours or so and sends us ahead four +or five miles. The skipper lately has kept his temper well for so +intolerant a man, but it is now oozing rapidly away, and he rolls out a +reverberating oath at the men every few minutes, at whom he rages for +apparently nothing. He seems to think that the most laborious tasks +ought to be accomplished instantaneously, and he stuns Jimmie Rumps +now and then with something like, “I’ll learn yer to obey with the end +of a rope, for yer can’t pull any more than somebody’s d—— cow”; and +constantly asks him, “Ain’t yer got a mouth on yer to answer with?”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</span></p> + +<p>I had a talk with Coleman the other day. This man is the graven image +of the conventional Mephistopheles, and arrived, together with Olsen, +at New York, on the American ship “S. P. Hitchcock” a fortnight before +we sailed, ninety-two days from Honolulu. Coleman couldn’t say enough +in favor of Captain Gates (indeed, every one speaks well of him), +adding, “She’s a bloody sight different from this packet.” In saying +which he alluded to Captain Scruggs’s abusive manner when talking +to the men, which is entirely unnecessary and doesn’t do any good. +Sailors, of course, can’t bear this when they are doing their best, and +will make it just as hard as they can for a captain in return. In the +face of several recent outrageous pieces of cruelty on our ships, I do +not think that our skipper will personally lay hands on the men. Still, +you cannot tell to what length he will go when we have been together +three or four months.</p> + +<p>The mate approached us last evening and gave it as his opinion that +we’d never see the big steel Bath ship “Dirigo” again. “Why not?” said +I; “she had not been more than one hundred and sixty days at sea when +we sailed.”</p> + +<p>“I know; that’s all right,” he answered; “but she was spoken off the +Horn by the Briddish ship ‘Howth,’ that arrived a month before we +left. Oh, you’ll never see <i>her</i> again.” That’s the way with this +individual,—he always thinks that something is going to happen. Then +he suddenly asked,—</p> + +<p>“Do you know wot Dirigo means?”</p> + +<p>I told him that I did know what it meant,—“I direct.”</p> + +<p>“Naw,” he replied; “hit’s the motto of the State of Maine, and means +‘go ahead’”; and when I tried to tell him that that was a very free +translation of it, he said, “I don’t care for no translation; in the +Greek language it<span class="pagenum" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</span> means ‘go ahead.’” Such incontrovertible evidence +was, of course, indisputable.</p> + +<p>Mr. Rarx, the second mate, is of an altogether different type from Mr. +Goggins. He has more natural intelligence, is very neat and clean, and +is, besides, a far better seaman, and handles the men in such a way +as to get twice as much work accomplished in a watch as the mate. But +I am inclined to think that he has a very bad temper, from the motion +he made with a fid the other day at two of the sailors who had made a +mistake with a splice; and when he told me about an easy voyage which +he had just made in the “William H. Smith,” and added, “I didn’t have +to speak cross to the men once from Singapore to New York,” he looked +at me very hard, and it seemed as though he were “sounding” me, to see +whether I would believe improbable yarns. Still, I may be doing him +injustice.</p> + +<p>Perhaps the most agreeable man in the ship is David MacFoy, and we +talked together for half an hour yesterday at about six o’clock. “This +is a tedious place, mister,” said he; “we were three weeks here in the +Doldrums a couple of months ago in the ‘P. N. Blanchard,’ from Manila +to Boston. We’ll be awhile here now if signs count; and what’s that +we’ve got ahead of us?—the Horn in mid-winter! Oh dear, dear! The +last time I went round to the westward was in the ‘Tam o’ Shanter,’ a +couple of years ago now, and we were forty-nine days off Cape Horn, +and that much snow that in half an hour the lee decks would be full +o’ drift. But d’ye know, I’d rather double the Horn to the west’ard +than run the eastin’ down goin’ out to China and Australia. If yer do +get heavier sou’west gales there, you’re hove to comfortable-like; but +runnin’ to the east’ard, it’s a terrible thing to have them greyhounds +a-chasin’ yer. On the last passage out to Wellington two hands were +washed overboard out o’ the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</span> waist, another was washed away from the +wheel off the poop, and a fourth poor fellow fell from the upper +mizzen-top-sail-yard, and only lived ten minutes. Oh! that other’s +a crool cape, sir. No, I’m not married; there’s too many grog-shops +around. Now, look: when I landed in Boston a few weeks ago from the +‘Blanchard’ I had a hundred and seventy-six dollars comin’ to me. That +was on a Friday. The next Monday I landed in New York with fifty cents, +and signed here next day; but that was pretty quick work.”</p> + +<p>This, and much more, did the big, handsome Scot reveal to me, in +the pleasant accents of his native land, and with that knack of +story-telling which so many ship-masters imagine that they possess, +to the chagrin and distraction of their friends. I expect many more +agreeable half-hours with this interesting fellow, for he instils much +individuality into his tales. Nor will I ever forget him as he leaned +against the pin-rail in the dusk this evening, his clean checked jumper +lying open across his brown chest, as round as a barrel, and his head +shaded by a wide-brimmed felt hat. He is an ideal bosun.</p> + +<p>Being now in one of the great ocean cross-roads, we are constantly +sighting vessels, both steamers and wind-jammers, bound north and +south, the steamers being those on the voyage to and from the river +Plate and Brazil to the United States and Europe. Yesterday we sighted +five vessels, but none near enough to speak. Latitude, 3° 40′ north; +longitude, 27° 50′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">June 4</span></p> + +<p>Our calm hot weather continues with no indications of a break, and +the sun is continuously obscured by heavy, cumulus clouds, though +the heat is scarcely so overpowering as it was a day or two ago. But +the humidity is suffocating,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</span> and as we have no sun, rugs, towels, +and everything else feel almost wet to the touch. Last evening we +had a sharp squall at 6.30, for which we lowered the sky-sails and +luffed smartly at the same time. Very heavy rain fell too, making the +fourteenth hard shower of the day. In the middle watch last night, the +mate said that the heaviest rain fell which he had ever seen, together +with a single dazzling lightning-flash and a simultaneous crash of +thunder.</p> + +<p>In our lives we have witnessed many scenes of great tumult, but never +have I seen any to compare with that on board this ship this afternoon +at four o’clock. Captain Scruggs had been growling and yapping around +the main-deck all day, cursing everything, and particularly the light +air which came fanning along, whenever it fanned at all, straight out +of the south. Thus far we had not once tacked ship, though several +times the wind had shifted so as to bring it on the other side. We were +crawling along then this afternoon toward the east when eight bells +went and both watches came on deck; while in another minute, without +previous warning, the skipper yapped out, “All hands ’bout ship.” +Paint-brushes and serving-mallets were dropped and tar-pots stowed +away, while every one hastened to obey the summons.</p> + +<p>Now, there is always more or less confusion the first time that a +square-rigger tacks or wears on a voyage, though if everybody keeps his +head there ought not to be so very much; and if our skipper had only +let Mr. Goggins attend to the small details there wouldn’t have been +a tenth of the disorder here. From the moment that the helm was put +down, however, until we filled away on the other leg the ship was like +a mad-house at recess. I don’t believe that there ever was heard on a +vessel’s deck such yelling, or howling, which is a more comprehensive +word. Nearly<span class="pagenum" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</span> every order given by either mate the captain at once +countermanded, sometimes without knowing it, often on purpose. The +main-deck was full of capstan-bars, lead blocks and braces, which +had been cast off when the order came to ’bout ship; and over and +among these encumbrances eighteen men wrangled, stamped, and swore to +an accompaniment of chattering blocks and thrashing canvas, as the +ship came up to the wind, the mates cuffing and thumping the awkward +ones with unflagging diligence, Mr. Goggins lumbering heavily aft to +administer a painful booting to that hapless creature, Neils Brün, who +has been in almost continuous trouble since the mate nearly pulled his +ear off, a fortnight ago.</p> + +<p>And where was the master of the ship all this time? Behold him at the +break of the poop raging like the heathen, while at times he shook both +fists together above his head and swore like a pirate, as his voice +went booming and crashing above the noise of battle. But the full glory +of the scene was reached when, a few moments after he had roared out +“Maintop-sail, haul!” the main-brace jammed in the brace-block and +wouldn’t render. His passion was almost fearful as he called upon the +blank-blank-blankety who fouled the brace to show himself; while he +jumped off the poop and raged away, tearing the braces apart as though +he were wringing some one’s neck. Even the second mate lost his head +once as the old man shouted to his bosun, “I told yer to let go that +t’gallant-brace, didn’t I? Do yer want me to show yer how it’s done? I +will; but I’ll wipe the deck with yer first. Where are yer steerin’ the +ship to, yer at the wheel? Maybe yer’d like to have her aback?”</p> + +<p>Now, if we had never been to sea before, we might have supposed that +this was the necessary and proper manner of putting a ship about; but +as we had seen the “Mandalore”<span class="pagenum" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</span> under similar conditions several times, +where there was almost perfect order during such evolutions, this scene +was positively astounding, and disgusted us with Captain Scruggs. He is +manifestly a fine seaman (American ship-masters are invariably that), +but he loses command of himself and every one else as soon as there is +anything to be done.</p> + +<p>Although the American sailing ships have decreased in numbers amazingly +in the last twenty-five years, there being in 1871 twenty-four hundred +and sixty-six square-rigged vessels under the flag, as against four +hundred and fifty-six at the present time, there seems to be good +reason to think that an increase in this branch of ship-building is +about to commence. Arthur Sewall, the great Bath ship-owner, has a +large three-thousand-ton vessel completed and the keel of another one +laid down, both of steel, while it is not improbable that he will build +a fleet of such sailing ships. Think of our immense trade to the East +fifty years since, and then ponder on the fact that not long ago the +only vessel which entered the port of Calcutta flying the American +flag for a period of four years was a British-built steam-yacht! That +sailing vessels in general are not passing away as rapidly as people +suppose, however, was shown by a circumstance that occurred about +six months ago, when the freight-steamer “Massachusetts” arrived one +day at New York from London and reported that in twelve hours she +passed fifty-four sailing vessels of various rigs, all close-hauled on +the starboard tack! Her approximate position then was latitude 48°, +longitude 27°.</p> + +<p>For several days the men have been setting up the rigging fore and aft, +and they are now finishing the mizzen-top-gallant, royal and sky-sail +backstays. It was a tedious job, but intensely interesting to watch, +and I had never seen it done before on a square-rigger, as the other +ship’s<span class="pagenum" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</span> rigging was set up with turnbuckles. Latitude, 3° 22′ north; +longitude, 27° 50′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">June 5</span></p> + +<p>We think that we have taken the southeast Trades, though the wind +as yet is nothing to the eastward of south. Last evening the dense +rain-clouds and vapory masses of the Doldrums gave way to a clear sky +dotted with trade clouds, and a lovely night followed, the moon in the +first quarter being visible for the first time in many days. We had +also a magnificent view of the southern heavens, with the golden Cross +now well up, wheeling slowly through the sky, the finest constellation +in the south. Immediately beneath, though a little to the left of, the +Cross a strange thing is to be observed in the shape of what seems to +be a large pear-shaped blot in the surrounding stars, bearing a close +resemblance to a dark cloud, about the same size as the Cross itself. +Within this space, which sailors call the Black Cloud, not a single +star can be observed with the naked eye, though the sky round about the +Cross in every other direction is thick with stars of the third and +fourth magnitude.</p> + +<p>At eight o’clock this evening we tacked ship for the third or fourth +time to-day, and by reason of so much practice this herculean task +was accomplished with a little less noise than before. Still, the +disturbance was very great, with a prodigious amount of shouting and +bad language from the skipper, which once more rose to a climax when +one of the fore buntlines caught on something, just after he had sung +out “Let go and haul.” Captain Scruggs, who was standing at the extreme +forward end of the cabin-house, here executed a few fantastic steps +to relieve his mind, and being clearly outlined in the moonlight, +he made a very idiotic appearance. The manœuvre of tacking on this +occasion,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</span> by the way, was a very impressive one, the white moon-beams +transforming the dull gray canvas into cloths of satiny sheen as the +great yards revolved to maintop-sail haul.</p> + +<p>It must be said that the captain was justified to-day in kicking at the +weather. The breeze was of the very faintest sort, and as often as we +tacked ship the wind actually seemed to jump around and head us off, so +that, after we were once more braced up on the port tack this evening +and the wind shifted back and into the south, heading us off to nearly +west, we really began to pity the skipper.</p> + +<p>The phosphoric display here is the most beautiful which we have ever +seen. Our wake every night is a swirling, gyrating, writhing path of +liquid fire, in which glitter thousands of apparently incandescent +globes as large as billiard-balls, with now and then a suggestion of +fiery serpents twisting and wriggling through the glowing mass.</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“Beyond the shadow of the ship</div> + <div class="verse indent2">I watched the water-snakes;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">They moved in tracks of shining white,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And when they reared, the elfish light</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Fell off in hoary flakes.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“Within the shadow of the ship</div> + <div class="verse indent2">I watched their rich attire;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Blue, glossy green, and velvet black,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">They coiled and swam; and every track</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Was a flash of golden fire.”</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>How singularly devoid some men are of decent feelings! I talked last +evening at the pumps with Murphy (he whose nose was pulled) and Rumps. +The latter was boasting as to how long he could stay drunk without +seeing startling visions, and rejoiced in saying that he had been +in the lock-up of more than one city in the United States. Murphy,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</span> +however, bowled him completely over by remarking quite calmly, “I been +in the jail of every large seaport in the world.”</p> + +<p>Though the temperature is just as high, 84° at noon on deck, the +humidity has almost disappeared and the weather seems clear and +settled. Latitude, 2° 49′ north; longitude, 27° west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">June 6</span></p> + +<p>Indications seem to point with certainty to our having taken the +southeast Trades, for a strong breeze sprang up at six this morning, +descending upon us in a squall. We trembled lest it should prove naught +but a puff; but we had the satisfaction of seeing it steadily increase, +so that four hours later we had logged thirty-four miles, close-hauled, +laying our course, the wind being strong and true at southeast. It +might not be thought amiss if I state here what the origin of the +trade-winds is. They are due to the inrush of cold air from the poles +towards the equator to take the place of the warm current which rises +from the latter. Owing to the easterly rotation of the earth on its own +axis the air from the north becomes a northeast wind, and that from +the south a southeast wind. The hot air flows to the poles as an upper +current, and, having been cooled there, it descends to the surface of +the earth to form the westerly or anti-trade-winds.</p> + +<p>At 8.30 this morning a vessel was sighted to windward, bound north, +which soon resolved itself into a tramp steamer. Here was an excellent +chance to be reported; so telling the helmsman to hold her up as much +as possible, the captain hauled out the flags DRHF, bent them on to +the signal-halliards, and when he thought that the steamer had opened +out our monkey-gaff, he told the mate to hoist away; which, being a +very simple operation, he<span class="pagenum" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</span> accomplished without accident; and in a +few seconds the flags which spelled our name were fluttering merrily +away a hundred feet above the deck. Anxiously we waited, but no +answering pennant showed from the steamer, and we were about to blast +her skipper with deep-sea anathemas, when she was observed to alter +her course at right angles and come bearing down upon us, pushing a +big snow-bank of foam ahead of her bluff bows. On she came, as if to +lay us aboard, until she was within half a mile, when she shifted her +helm again, describing a deep circle, while at the same instant the +familiar little red-and-white-striped pennant flew up to her triatic +stay, meaning “I understand you”; down came our flags on the run and +“Report me all well” was hoisted instead, or rather it wasn’t hoisted +until after the skipper had discovered that the miserable Goggins had +run up “Steer after me” by mistake, which necessitated some lightning +changes, as the stranger was moving rapidly away. Again the gay little +triangle fluttered from the latter, while we ran the stars and stripes +to the gaff and dipped three times, the other reciprocating with the +scarlet ensign of Great Britain. The steamer then kept away, and in +half an hour was a blot in the northeast; from her course the skipper +thinks that she was from Pernambuco bound to the Cape de Verde. Now, +here is a man who deserves to be publicly commended, and I wish that +we had caught the steamer’s name, that it might appear in these +pages. How many steamer captains are there who will alter the course +for the purpose of speaking a mere wind-jammer? This incident seems +to refute the assertion which is often made about the careless and +what-are-you-to-me-spirit of British ship-masters, for no one could be +more civil or polite than the captain of this tramp; rivalling in this +respect the Germans, who are said to be the most painstaking of all the +nationalities in the reporting of vessels.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</span></p> + +<p>I nearly forgot an agreeable break in the monotony of yesterday. We +sighted a brig in the forenoon ahead and to windward; and though she +had a lot of fore and aft canvas set, which ought to have held her up +well, we rapidly ate up towards her, so that at four o’clock she was +ahead and a little to leeward. We gradually crawled up on her then, and +in another fifteen minutes had her abeam, so close that the features +of her helmsman were clearly visible. Then I thought of our megaphone, +presented to us just before we sailed, and here was a grand opportunity +of putting it to practical use. So I brought it up on deck and the +following conversation ensued:</p> + +<p>“Hello! what brig is that?”</p> + +<p>“The ‘Venturer,’ of Nova Scotia, from Philadelphia for——” Here +followed a terrific aggregation of syllables which we couldn’t catch.</p> + +<p>“When did you sail?”</p> + +<p>“May 7, from Delaware Breakwater. What ship is that?”</p> + +<p>“The ‘Hosea Higgins,’ from New York for San Francisco. Please report us +all well.” A flourish of the arm from a man on her poop answered our +request, which ended the interview. The megaphone worked beautifully, +though they are of no use in windy weather. Of course, the mate, never +having seen one, felt it his duty to jeer at it, which he did by +saying, “That thing, whatever yer call it, ’s no good; I could hear +better’n you without it.”</p> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp90" id="i_084a" style="max-width: 136.125em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/i_084a.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption class="caption"><p>Overhauling the “Venturer”</p></figcaption> +</figure> + +<p>Reference to a copy of the <i>Maritime Register</i> on board showed +that the “Venturer” was of one hundred and ninety-three tons, hailed +from Weymouth, Nova Scotia, and was bound to Margem do Torquary, +Brazil; small wonder that we couldn’t understand it before. It reminds +me of an Italian bark which sailed from New York a short<span class="pagenum" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</span> time ago +for Alexandretta, the “Nostra Signora del Sacro Cuoro di Jesu.”</p> + +<p>The “Venturer” was what is usually known as a tidy little vessel, and +she made a really fine picture as she surged buoyantly along over the +watery hillocks. Accurately, she was a brigantine, and we got several +very fair photographs of her, though the light was bad. Altogether, +we sight about a dozen vessels a day now, which shows how densely +populated the Atlantic is near the equator.</p> + +<p>A circumstance quite surprising is the frequency with which the mates +leave the poop when on watch; indeed, a good deal more than half of +their time is spent on the main-deck; whereas on ships of foreign +nations it is the general rule that the officer of the watch shall +never leave the poop unless he has some excellent reason; common sense +shows the desirability of always keeping an officer where he will have +full command of the ship.</p> + +<p>Well, we’re doing grandly now, and at noon were only ninety-five miles +from the equator, and should cross it between one and two o’clock +to-morrow morning. Latitude, 1° 35′ north; longitude, 27° 52′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">June 7</span></p> + +<p>South latitude! Our expectations were fulfilled, for we entered the +Southern Hemisphere in the morning watch, crossing the great circle +which circumscribes the earth at fifteen minutes past four. Thus we +have entered upon the second stage of our voyage; and while the first +quarter was certainly not everything which could be desired, we reached +the line in very good time, twenty-seven days from New York. If we had +had even a little better luck in the Doldrums, four days could have +been stricken from the twenty-seven; this is a far better passage, +though, than we made in the “Mandalore,” when we had been forty-nine<span class="pagenum" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</span> +days at sea before we finally cut the equator. Perhaps the most +comforting part is the fact that the skipper seems to have exhausted +his supply of <i>aguardiente</i>, for he has been very solemn and +strictly sober for three or four days. Heaven grant that he has no more +grog!</p> + +<p>This weather is so magnificent now that the memory of our late +smothering calms, during which we were eight days in making four +degrees of southing, has entirely passed away, for we are humming +through the water at eight knots, close-hauled, with streaming +scuppers, while the superb southeast trade-wind sings a blithesome tune +in the rigging. It is the grandest wind that blows; so cool and steady, +and the ocean so sparkles under its influence, with a snow-white crest +topping each sea, reflecting the splendid blue of the heavens in its +azure depths, that existence becomes an unbounded delight. I think, +too, that the finest cloud effects which we saw on our first voyage +were in the southeast Trades. True to precedence, yesterday afternoon +at four o’clock the northeastern sky was obscured by a huge dark cloud +of the color of indigo, and rendered doubly so by the sun shining upon +it; this cloud extended almost to the sea-rim, black and frowning, +while immediately beneath it, on the horizon, appeared some faraway +masses of cumulus cloud of a most beautiful cream color, enchanting the +mind with their loveliness and resembling great yellow icebergs.</p> + +<p>As we were contemplating this spectacle, MacFoy sung out something +which I thought was “Vessel on the lee.” The mate then went aloft for +a better view, and when he had come down I asked him if he could see +the vessel, to which he replied, “St. Paul’s Rocks.” This excited us +at once, and I went up to the cross-jack-yard, from which elevation I +plainly saw against a dark cloud what appeared to be twin light-houses, +like Thatcher’s Island lights at<span class="pagenum" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</span> Cape Ann, Massachusetts. Although +fifteen miles distant at the time, and the weather was slightly hazy, +these two rocky columns rising from a depth of two thousand fathoms, +the only land within hundreds of miles, produced an effect wonderfully +majestic and solemn. The exact position of the rocks is 0° 55′ 30′′ +north and 29° 22′ west, and they are five in number, though only two +are of considerable altitude, the loftiest being one hundred feet in +height. They are separated from each other only by narrow chasms, so +that until you approach very close the appearance is that of a single +island. The whole space occupied by St. Paul’s Rocks does not exceed +five hundred yards in length and three hundred in breadth; and while +Darwin concluded that they were not of volcanic origin, more modern +scientists—Renard, Geikie, and Wadsworth—have decided that they are +eruptive. These rocks are totally devoid of vegetation, but are the +resort of incredible numbers of sea-birds, both gannets and noddies, as +well as a certain spider, while the water in the vicinity swarms with +fish, seven varieties having been taken by the “Challenger” during a +very short stay.</p> + +<p>Captain (afterward Admiral) Fitzroy, when in command of the “Beagle” +during her celebrated five years’ voyage, visited these rocks, and +wrote an admirable description thereof. Among his observations is the +following: “The multitude of birds covering the rocks was astonishing, +and they suffered themselves to be kicked about and killed with sticks; +at the same time those on the wing even darkened the sky. Numbers of +fine fish, like the grouper of Bermuda, bit eagerly at baited hooks; +but as soon as a fish was caught a rush of voracious sharks was made +at him, and notwithstanding blows of oars and boat-hooks, the ravenous +monsters could not be deterred from seizing and taking away more than +half the fish that were hooked.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</span></p> + +<p>Had it been earlier in the day we would have stood in toward the rocks +to behold the surf which rages incessantly against the weather-side. +But it was too late; and even as we looked the lofty obelisks began to +fade away, and at 6.15 we had what I hope will not be our last look +at the lonely St. Paul’s Rocks. The Atlantic Ocean near the equator, +between the meridians of 18° and 23°, is subject to frequent and +violent earthquakes, which have the effect upon a vessel like that +of being dragged over a reef, or that of a heavy chain-cable being +suddenly run out through the hawse-pipes.</p> + +<p>The most singular fact in relation to the component parts of sea-water +is the variation in the proportion of salt; for every ton of Atlantic +water evaporated there is yielded eighty-one pounds of salt; ditto +Pacific, seventy-nine pounds; ditto Arctic, eighty-five; while the Dead +Sea heads the list with one hundred and eighty-seven pounds, though I +have never seen such statistics in regard to our Great Salt Lake.</p> + +<p>Although the temperature in the shade to-day was very agreeable, the +sun’s heat was terrific. It is customary to refer to a “baking sun,” +but I should call that of to-day a boiling sun, on account of the +moisture; and it is strange that on a day like this the sun’s rays +will not dry out a wet towel, though exposed to them for several hours +during the hottest part of the day, so great is the humidity. Latitude, +0° 49′ south; longitude, 29° 53′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">June 8</span></p> + +<p>These are fine Trades, though the squalls are severe and sudden. A +few words here, in passing, as to squalls. What landsmen often call a +squall sailors call a puff, such as are experienced along our coasts +with a northwest wind, lasting a few seconds. A sailor’s squall often +lasts for<span class="pagenum" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</span> thirty minutes and is accompanied with heavy rain, while it +can be observed approaching in the form of a nimbus cloud touching the +ocean a long while before it reaches the ship.</p> + +<p>In this twenty-four hours we did two hundred and thirteen knots, an +average of more than nine within the hour, while in many of the squalls +we must have been going nearly twelve. How many yachts are there which +can equal this on a bowline? Ship-masters, however, cannot realize how +fast a yacht can sail with a light wind; they all seem to think that +a yacht sails best in a gale. Captain Kingdon often used to say to us +in the Southern Ocean, when we were doing twelve knots before a fresh +gale, “Ah! this is where I’d like to see an able yacht! Sixteen knots, +eh?” And he couldn’t understand that under those conditions a smart +yacht could sail but little, if any, faster than we were doing. But +what is even more difficult for them to grasp is the speed of a racing +yacht in what they call a light air. Sometimes when we were fanning +along at, say, five knots, I used to worry Captain Kingdon by telling +him that a seventy-footer would run him out of sight in that breeze in +a few hours. He refused to believe that any yacht could make nearly ten +knots while the “Mandalore” was doing perhaps five.</p> + +<p>This morning we had a heavy sunrise squall, for which we had to let +go the royal halliards, the sky-sails having been stowed during the +night. But, quick as the men were, the wind was swifter yet; for before +the clew-lines and buntlines could be manned a great rent was made +in the mizzen-royal, and in a few minutes the second mate reported +that the upper foretop-sail was in the same condition; both were, +therefore, unbent and lowered as such, while a brand new mizzen-royal +was sent up, the first of the strong new sails which will be bent +before we reach the bad<span class="pagenum" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</span> weather. It was the hardest squall which we +have had yet, and the wind and rain made a thunderous noise while it +lasted; yet, high above the din, could be heard the powerful voice of +Mr. Rarx, shouting to the men to bear a hand with the mizzen-royal +clew-lines. Though there were plenty of squalls throughout the night, +the sky was perfectly clear between them, and thickly studded with fine +constellations, while the moon silvered the great wool-packs as they +sailed serenely up out of the southeast. Quite a sea had made by eight +bells this morning, in which we wallowed a good deal, but lost none of +our way. Sea-birds have been very scarce lately, though a single large +frigate-bird has sailed all day on motionless wing in wide circles +overhead.</p> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp90" id="i_126a" style="max-width: 146.9375em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/i_126a.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption class="caption"><p>“Eight bells”</p></figcaption> +</figure> + +<p>I wonder how many perfectly well and healthy deep-water captains there +are? This sounds absurd at first, as it is the general opinion that +sea-captains are always thoroughly hearty and strong. Of course some +of them are, for long-voyage skippers not infrequently live to a very +advanced age, proving that they must have always been sound men; yet +in most instances it will be found that they suffer from some malady +brought about in their profession. Perhaps the most common is liver +trouble in conjunction with dyspepsia in some form. Captain Kingdon’s +death, it will be remembered, was caused by a cancer or abscess in +the liver. Such complaints are due to an inactive life for months at +a stretch, for captains, on account of their dignity, cannot take +part in the working of a ship or in pumping her out, so that walking +the poop must constitute all their exercise. Rheumatism, produced by +bad food and exposure, divides the honors with the liver, while from +heart-disease but comparatively few long-voyage captains are free. +It generally develops in those of a nervous temperament, induced by +worry in gales and dread of trouble<span class="pagenum" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</span> with the crew if they are unruly, +besides a score of reasons only understood by the initiated. Even in my +very limited experience, I have known three master-mariners afflicted +with cardiac disease. One, a splendid fellow, Coalfleet, of Hantsport, +Nova Scotia, died in his bunk in the North Atlantic; another, in the +Ward Line service, was grievously stricken in Cuba, and had to retire +from the sea; while the third suffered from dreadful intermittent +attacks of angina, but I have lost track of him for several years. +Latitude, 3° 50′ south; longitude, 31° 35′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">June 9</span></p> + +<p>Late yesterday afternoon Captain Scruggs came up and said that Fernando +de Noronha was visible to leeward from aloft, and that if we looked +hard enough we might be able to see it from the deck. So we gazed long +and earnestly over to the westward, and there, sure enough, arose a +soft, rose-colored cloud through the mist; and in another half-hour +we could perceive the various islands which constitute this group, +together with the lofty pyramidal rock one thousand feet above the +sea, which crowns the loftiest of the islands, giving it a peculiar +individuality, so that it is not possible to mistake this cluster for +any other known group. We were near enough to count four distinct +islands, the largest of them being twenty miles in circumference, +and we could just make out the tremendous walls of sheer, unbroken +rock falling into the sea; but beyond this it was not given us to +penetrate even with the strongest glasses on board. Would that we had +been fifteen miles nearer, that we might have compared this group with +Trinidad, which rears its desolate summit two thousand and twenty feet +above the sea, fifteen degrees farther south. The spectacle of the +surf breaking on Fernando de Noronha must be even grander than on St. +Paul’s Rocks;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</span> for, lying in the very heart of the strong southeast +trade-wind, the full force of the mighty South Atlantic surge dashes +ceaselessly against its basaltic walls.</p> + +<p>Last evening was very fine indeed, the wind having let go sufficiently +to make the deck agreeable; and as the moon shone with great power, +it was a night of remarkable beauty even for the Tropics, although +some ragged scud which blew swiftly across the moon presaged plenty of +wind for to-day. The indications were fulfilled, for it has been very +squally since early this morning; all the royals came in at eleven +o’clock, and we have been plunging along in a broken sea, through +savage blasts which roar in the rigging with an angry voice. The most +unfortunate thing is that the wind is heading us by hauling to the +southward, and for the greater part of the past twenty-four hours we +have been steering well to the westward of southwest; so that, in spite +of our weatherly position on the line, we are going to have trouble +in getting past that portion of Brazil lying to the southward of San +Roque. Indeed, at noon we were only seventy-five miles from the land, +a little south of the Great Bugbear, as Maury pertinently styled the +famous cape.</p> + +<p>For dinner to-day we had canned lobster, which came from the +far-distant Cape of Good Hope; at least, the skipper called them +lobsters, but the mate disgustedly muttered “Crawfish.” This sort of +thing the skipper cannot stand, as he considers it a crime for Mr. +Goggins to know more than he does, and actually resents any information +which the mate volunteers at table. He generally doesn’t care to +exhibit his knowledge in the skipper’s presence, and it is hard to see +why to-day he forgot himself in so unusual a manner. Yesterday, for +instance, I remarked what a particularly hot day it was for the Trades, +and the skipper promptly denied it on principle until furnished with +ocular<span class="pagenum" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</span> proof by thermometers, while the mate discreetly observed, “I +feel like gettin’ out me warmer coat.”</p> + +<p>Mr. Goggins is occupied during the first watch every other night in +teaching two of the men where the different ropes lead to on deck. One +of these hapless individuals is Louis Eckers, who doesn’t understand +much English, and the other is John Pettersen, an immensely tall, lean +Dane, who lives in such terror of the mate that he utterly loses his +head at every command. He is, besides, pitifully anxious to please, and +his awkwardness is really remarkable. If there happens to be a rope +yarn in his path he is sure to trip on it, and when he starts to move +in obedience to an order, he first stares all about as though just +recovering consciousness, and then suddenly perceiving that the men +are some distance off by this time, he laboriously gets his lank frame +under way after heavily tripping over some object, and, with elbows +squared and head bent low, he charges like a bull across the deck. +Neither of these men has ever been aboard of a square-rigger before, +and what little sense they have seems to vanish when anything is to be +done. I’ll never forget John’s appearance last night as he clattered +heavily forward toward the forecastle when the mate said ferociously, +“Show me the spanker-sheet.” Poor fellow! so rattled he knew not +whither he was going.</p> + +<p>Speaking of ropes a moment ago reminds me of the largest one ever +made in England. It was of white manila, weighed five tons, and was +twenty-two inches in girth with a breaking strain of eighteen tons. +This huge rope was made a short time ago for the express purpose of +towing a floating dry-dock from the Tyne to Havana, which itself +weighed six thousand tons. Seventy men were required to haul in the +hawser and coil it away. Latitude 6° 18′ south; longitude, 33° 58′ +west.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</span></p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">June 10</span></p> + +<p>Oh, unhappy day! Oh, joyless hour! We could not weather South America +after all! Late yesterday afternoon when I had plotted the run off +on our own chart, I sought the skipper and said to him, “Unless my +chart is out, we’re not more than forty miles off the land.” “No,” +he answered, quietly; “we’re just thirty miles from the beach, and +I’m going to wear ship at six.” How bitter was his tone as he said +this! Bitter and calm with despair, for that which he said in jest +three weeks ago has truly come to pass. Far back in the North Atlantic +one morning, when we were not far enough to the eastward for that +latitude, I asked the captain if he weren’t generally farther east +than we were then. But he made light of it, trusting to his star of +luck, as he jocosely answered, “Oh, well, maybe we’ll have a chance to +look at Brazil.” Prophetic utterance. No one knows until he has “been +there” how it galls a skipper to be caught here, for it often puts +two or three weeks on the length of a voyage. At any rate, when six +o’clock came last evening we wore ship to a running and complicated +accompaniment of boisterous profanity, and stood away east on the +starboard tack. If the Trades were where the general average shows +that they ought to be at this season, east-southeast instead of +south-southeast as they are, we would have fetched by with two or three +degrees to spare.</p> + +<p>The breeze was pretty strong when we turned in last night, and gave +evidence of freshening considerably; but no one looked for any such +wind as we had this morning. We were awakened by the loud voice of +Captain Scruggs, “Haul up the crojjick, Mr. Rarx,” and five minutes +afterwards, “Clew up the t’ga’nt-s’ls fore and aft,” while a sudden +headlong dive showed that something more than a strong breeze was +blowing. Dressing was difficult, and when we finally emerged from the +companion-way, behold<span class="pagenum" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</span> the ocean almost white with breaking seas and +a moderate gale whistling from south-southeast. The seas were short +and we plunged heavily into them with an unpleasant jerk; but it was a +glorious sight to watch the billows as they came roaring at us, deep +blue in the hollows and crested with hissing froth. We hadn’t been more +than half an hour on deck when the captain sung out, “Haul down the +maintop-mast stay-sail and clew up the main-sail,” which meant that we +were going to wear again and stand in shore. We were nearly in the wind +on the other tack, and the second mate had just roared out, “Head-yards +now,” when crash! a tall sea fell over the weather side and full upon +the wee Chinese cook, the meekest, jolliest little fellow imaginable. +He was standing outside of the galley door when that sea claimed him. +It slammed him first against the main hatch; washed him back into the +scuppers; then aft nearly to the cabin bulkhead, and finally sat him +fiercely down by the pumps, during which evolutions the frail little +fellow could be perceived shooting about in the surging waters, his +long, black, thin pig-tail curling and writhing several feet behind +him. After the water had partly run off, half burying the men on the +lee foresheet, our little Chinaman lay very still, and we feared that +he was badly hurt, though the men were roaring with laughter, while the +skipper thundered “Why in h—— don’t yer pick him up?” to the mates, +who stood as though petrified, gazing at a cask of sea-water bearing +down on the cook which would have flattened him like one of his own +pancakes. All at once he came to, however, saw the barrel almost on +him, and skilfully rolled out of the way of it, escaping with some +painful bruises on his arms.</p> + +<p>This was the only sea that boarded us, and we were soon straightened +out on the old port tack, steering southwest, and doing scarcely four +knots, for we were under short canvas<span class="pagenum" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</span> and the seas pounded us back, +and even now we will hardly go free of the land; for in spite of our +twelve hours of easting during the night, a powerful northwest current +has set us back to such an extent that our noon sight showed us that we +were only ten miles farther off-shore than at the corresponding hour +yesterday, and that we had made only thirty miles of southing. If the +wind shifts only a point, though, we might be able to weather the land +after all.</p> + +<p>Last night the mate and I had a conversation about fast passages, and +he said to me, “I can tell yer, there was plenty of smart ships thirty +or forty years ago that yer never hear tell of nowadays. There’s the +Boston ship ‘Siren,’ as I was mate of; we were comin’ around from +Coquimbo, bound to Liverpool, when we were caught in a pampero off the +river Plate. It come in a squall as usual, and the fust thing I know, +there was the fore- and maint’-gallant-masts over the side. We didn’t +have no spare spars aboard, but, in spite of that, we went from 3° +south right into Liverpool in nineteen days. Pretty good for a lame +duck, and considering the Doldrums, too.</p> + +<p>“Then there was a smart passage I heered tell of the other day about a +modern ship, the British ship ‘King George’; she went from Cape Town up +to the Delaware Capes in forty-seven days.”</p> + +<p>This last was really a fine performance, for the distance which she +covered was six thousand eight hundred miles. Compare this passage +with the voyages of sailing vessels to the westward across the North +Atlantic in winter. They are nearly always fifty days coming across, +and not infrequently seventy, or nearly a month longer than the “King +George” was from South Africa, while the distance is less than half.</p> + +<p>In the Gulf of Mexico trade there is a wonderfully fast<span class="pagenum" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</span> little +fore-and-aft schooner called the “Margaret S. Smith,” of Portland, +Maine. This vessel ran on one occasion from Ruatan, Honduras, to +Mobile in seventy-two hours, which was an hourly average of twelve and +one-half knots; and considering that the net tonnage of this schooner +is only one hundred and twelve, her performance must be regarded as +almost phenomenal. There are not very many large sailing ships in these +days which can show a record of three hundred miles per diem for three +consecutive days; yet the “Smith” is doubtless less than one hundred +feet long.</p> + +<p>The other day I managed to get a large dollop of slush on a pair of +thick trousers, and I asked the skipper if Sammie, the boy, couldn’t +get it out, thinking that he could do so with some soap and a little +warm water. But lo! fifteen minutes later I saw my trousers soaking +away in a tub of water like a pair of dungaree breeches! This, as I +observed before, is the way with seafaring people: whenever there is +aught amiss with a garment, pop it goes into the wash-tub. Latitude, 6° +49′ south; longitude, 33° 48′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">June 11</span></p> + +<p>“All hands wear ship; all hands ’bout ship.” These are the cries +which ring constantly through the vessel now. Woful to tell, the +Trades are still from the south-southeast, though the captain in some +way has contrived to control his temper to a wonderful degree; such +unlooked-for and devilish a performance of the Trades is enough to +finally ruin any skipper’s chances of entrance into Heaven’s Gate, or +the Golden Gate either.</p> + +<p>Last evening at five o’clock we descried the land from aloft on the lee +or starboard bow, and after supper it was very plain from the deck, so +that at six we tacked and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</span> stood off shore again. At that time the sun +had just sank behind the sandy wastes of the Brazilian coast, casting +a deep crimson light over the sea; while dead ahead, at the extremity +of a profound curve in the coast-line, Point Pedras rose out of the +ocean in a low headland, with a tremendous mass of gloomy cloud above +it, lending to that part of the scene a sombre and awful aspect. Though +the land did not show up sufficiently well to allow us to perceive any +of its characteristics, it was plain enough to permit us to say that +we distinctly saw the shore-line of this vast and torrid land. Point +Pedras, it might be well to state, is not only the easternmost point of +Brazil, but of the entire Western Hemisphere, being forty-five miles +farther east than Cape San Roque.</p> + +<p>This afternoon we perceived a disturbance at the end of the +fishing-line which is always towing astern, and it was presently seen +that we had hooked a fine specimen of the sailor’s dolphin, the most +beautiful in coloring of all deep-water fish. I think that it might be +as well to apply the name dolphin to this fish from now forward, if +there should be occasion to mention one again. Of course it isn’t a +dolphin at all, but as sailors call it so, and this is supposed to be a +book about sailors, this name is as good as any other.</p> + +<p>Carefully we coaxed him up beneath the counter and then tried to kill +him by holding his mouth out of water, for he would have parted the +line if we had attempted to haul him aboard. As he sheared about on the +end of the line he presented a spectacle which was actually gorgeous, +and, being immediately above him, our view was perfect. His motions +were the very ideal of grace, and as he moved swiftly from side to side +he exhibited in succession all of his wonderful hues, vivid greens and +yellows merging into silver and Prussian blue. His antics were cut +short,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</span> however, by the arrival of the mate with the grains, which he +skilfully drove into the creature’s side (what a useless slaughter!), +and he was hauled up over the stern. Then we stood by for the dying +colors. Out upon them! Not for a single instant can they compare with +those of the fish in his natural condition, when, darting about a +fathom or so beneath the surface, he positively enchants the eye with +his brilliancy. He will yield us fresh food for supper, such as it is; +but all deep-sea fish are poor and dry, save one, the flying-fish, +which, if served in a restaurant with tartare sauce, I’m sure could not +be detected from a smelt.</p> + +<p>One often hears the discussion in shipping and yachting circles as +to the seaworthiness of fore-and-aft schooners in comparison with +square-riggers for deep-water work, and the question is often raised, +“Which would make the faster passage to San Francisco from New York, +the ship or the schooner?” Naturally there are points in favor of each; +the advantage lying with the ship when off the wind in strong breezes, +and with the schooner when by the wind. In the case of a voyage to, +say, Hong-Kong, in the southwest monsoons, the ship would probably +arrive at her destination ahead of the other, as there would be five +thousand miles of hard westerly (fair) winds in the Southern Ocean, +and another long stretch of free wind from the Straits of Sunda to +Hong-Kong. On the other hand, in a westerly passage of Cape Horn, in +which the vessel would be probably close-hauled for two or three weeks +in the Southern Ocean, or perhaps more than a month, the schooner would +have an immense advantage in being able to lie at least two points +closer than the ship, if the wind allowed her to carry enough sail to +go ahead. The wind is generally too heavy in the vicinity of Cape Horn, +though, to allow a small vessel to show much canvas when close-hauled, +and the passages of four schooners to San Francisco<span class="pagenum" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</span> found below +indicate that in reality there is not much difference between the +voyages of these schooners and the average of square-riggers. They were +all Gloucester fishermen, and were sent out by Mr. Horatio Babson, +of Boston, loaded with fishing supplies, rosin, pork, and hardware, +between 1868 and 1873.</p> + +<table class="autotable"> +<tr> +<td class="tdl"> </td> +<td class="tdl">Tons.</td> +<td class="tdl">Days.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl">“Urania”</td> +<td class="tdl">92</td> +<td class="tdl">125</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl">“Varuna”</td> +<td class="tdl">92</td> +<td class="tdl">131</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl">“Laura M. Mangam”</td> +<td class="tdl">85</td> +<td class="tdl">131</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl">“Reunion”</td> +<td class="tdl">90</td> +<td class="tdl">148</td> +</tr> +</table> + + +<p>The average of these vessels was one hundred and thirty-four days, as +against one hundred and forty-five for square-riggers; so that whatever +advantage they may have gained off Cape Horn and in the northeast +Trades in the Pacific, they, doubtless, lost in the long stretches +of southeast Trades on both sides of the continent. It must also be +added that all the schooners sailed during the month of November, so +as to reach Cape Horn in the middle of the southern summer. This fact +seems to me to be a good answer to those ship-masters who are wont +to assert that they would rather double Cape Horn in July than in +January,—<i>i.e.</i>, in winter than in summer,—saying that the gales +are harder in the latter month than in June and July. But the fact +that November was chosen for the schooners by a man who was no doubt +familiar with the Southern Ocean would indicate that the weather there +is better in January.</p> + +<p>To-day Mr. Rarx told me of a novel and very successful way of manning +a vessel with what is known as a checker-board crew. Two forecastles +are necessary, or one with a dividing bulkhead, all the men of one +watch being white and the others black. If they were together in +one forecastle, violent hostilities would continuously prevail; but +if separated, they will work against and try to outdo each<span class="pagenum" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</span> other; +so that, with a little judicious flattery or word of encouragement, +such work as the making and shortening of sail, tacking and wearing, +will be done with incredible alacrity. All-negro crews are held in +esteem by some long-voyage skippers, but the men are said to be very +unruly at sea, though fearless sailors; while the singing on board of +a ship manned by darkies, both chanties and otherwise, is said to be +wonderfully good. Latitude, 7° 35′ south; longitude, 34° 20′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">June 12</span></p> + +<p>No abatement of the southerly wind. We thought this morning that the +breeze was certainly going to haul to the eastward; but the wind, +though strong enough, yet hangs in the south-southeast, and we are, +therefore, still hammering away at it, tacking or wearing four times +in each twenty-four hours, so that in four days we have made only +ninety-eight miles of southing, a rate of nearly exactly a mile an +hour. Apropos of which Rumps made quite an original remark last +evening. For the full comprehension of the observation it must be +explained that if there is much wind and sea a ship will not make +better than a seven-point course,—that is, with the wind at south she +will do about west by south, or almost at a right angle. So the bosun +remarked, “Well, here we are, walking up and down the avenue, eh?” It +described what we were doing perfectly.</p> + +<p>This morning, while on the starboard tack, the skipper, who has now +lost every vestige of the patience which he formerly exhibited, thought +that at last the wind was going to shift to southeast at least, so +he sung out to wear round; but when we were snugged down on the port +tack, we fell off to southwest half west, exactly as before. It seemed +impossible that a human being could have shown such boundless rage as +the captain did then. We could hear him<span class="pagenum" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</span> muttering away at the farther +side of the poop, “What’s the use? No sort of use; no sort of use +at all.” And then, in a frenzy of sudden wrath, he stamped lustily +upon the deck and swore like the mouth of the pit, his wiry whiskers +bristling as though electrified, as he fiercely wagged his head; for he +wot not that we were hard by. Then his eye wandered to the main-deck, +and down the weather poop-ladder he clattered, looking for trouble, for +we could hear him growling and mumbling at the galley door.</p> + +<p>In rough weather, instead of ordinary teacups we have large, flat, +china utensils, which look like shaving-mugs, so that at first I seemed +to miss the brush. The mate, thinking to have another go at merrie +England, cried, triumphantly, “I’ll bet you had nothin’ like them on +the ‘Mandalore.’” But we quite shocked him with the information that +on that good ship we were furnished not only with these useful pieces +of crockery, but with some which held an imperial quart, from which +we drank our soup in heavy weather as from Brobdingnagian teacups. +Perhaps Mr. Goggins was never so absurd as to-day after dinner, when +he confidentially called to me and said, “Say, did yer hear the cap’n +say ‘pressperation’ instead of ‘perspiration’ just now? There ain’t no +such a word, yer know”; this with an urbanity which would have floored +a Chinaman.</p> + +<p>Mr. Rarx, too, sometimes favors us with some observations entirely +<i>sui generis</i>, and particularly droll in that he has a +well-inflated opinion of his own choice of English. He was telling of a +painful accident which happened to him several years ago, in which his +back was wrenched; “and, sir,” he concluded, “I didn’t know what to do; +I couldn’t stand, and I couldn’t lay, and I couldn’t set.” We wondered +whether he were possessed of any sort of ornithological accomplishments.</p> + +<p>In windy weather wearing stirs up a lively scene. This<span class="pagenum" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</span> is how it is +done on the “Higgins”: The skipper is pacing athwartships, undecided +whether to hold on any longer or not; then suddenly he stops, walks to +the break of the poop, and says quietly to the mate, “See the braces +clear for running, Mr. Goggins.” In five minutes or so the mate catches +the captain’s eye, and asks, “Are you ready, sir?”</p> + +<p>“Am I ready, sir!” repeats the latter, who will have nothing suggested +to him; “most certainly I am <i>not</i> ready; don’t you see that +squall to windward?”</p> + +<p>The mate withers; and when it has passed the idea of having to +break tacks again seems to have festered in the skipper’s mind, +for he suddenly snaps out, “All hands wear ship,” like a bunch of +fire-crackers going off. “All h-a-n-d-s wear ship” roar the mates, +running forward to rouse out the men, and aft they tumble and take +up their positions at the various ropes. Then the skipper begins his +harangue with voice of thunder and wind-mill arms: “Haul away on your +main and crojjick buntlines and clew-garnets; square the crojjick-yard; +you at the wheel, hard up yer hellum. Weather main-braces now; haul +away, you blasted old women; come in on those tops’l-braces. Head-yards +now; let go the foretack; foresheet now, all hands; forebraces; steady +your wheel.” The ship by this time has fallen off dead before the wind, +and the old man is in the zenith of his passion, whirling back and +forth across the poop, belching perfect volcanoes of profanity.</p> + +<p>“Main-braces again now; overhaul those spilling-lines and that main lee +inner buntline; again your main-braces; crojjick-tack, —— —— it; +look alive there and get that main-sheet aft; lead it to the capstan; +heave; in she comes, that’s well. Main and crojjick bowlines now; +that’s the style. Haul taut the weather-braces fore and aft, and clear +up the decks.”</p> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp90" id="i_386a" style="max-width: 134.0625em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/i_386a.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption class="caption"><p>Hauling taut the braces</p></figcaption> +</figure> + +<p>This oration is delivered in a hurricane voice to an<span class="pagenum" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</span> accompaniment +of roaring wind and flying spray, which sometimes enshrouds the whole +forecastle like a snow-squall; and the mates whiz about, driving the +men before them, and they in turn rend the air with their cries as they +come in on the braces. Each man seems to have an individual ejaculation +when hauling away, only one man, of course, singing out at each rope; +but as there are often half a dozen knots of men at work, there are as +many strange yells. Louis, the Frenchman, says, “Ho-ho-ho-ho-ho-ho-ho,” +beginning very deep and ending in a falsetto; Broadhead, one of +the youngest and smartest seamen in the ship, eases his mind with +“Hoo-oop, come in with her; oh, fiddle-strings; oh, split the wind”; +Olafsen cries, “Ha-joop, ha-joop”; while Timothy Powers, the wild, +carrot-topped Irishman, screams, “Yah ha-a-a-a, yah ha-a-a-a,” like a +freight train with the brakes on.</p> + +<p>Best of all, though, are the chanties; and as the men know each other +well by this time, there are plenty of them; and good old songs they +are, songs of the days of ’49, into which the men throw heart and soul. +Some of the best ones for hauling are, “Blow, my Bully Boys, Blow,” “A +Long Time Ago,” and “A Poor Old Man,” which latter two I believe that I +mentioned before; while some of the melodies sung to pumping ship are +even better. One is “The Plains of Mexico,” entirely in the minor, with +a weird effect; another, “The Banks of the Sacramento,” each verse of +which ends,—</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“For there’s plenty of gold,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">So I am told,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">On the banks of the Sacramento.”</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp90" id="i_104a" style="max-width: 140.5em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/i_104a.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption class="caption"><p>“Blow, my bully boys, blow”</p></figcaption> +</figure> + +<p>Still another, “The Girls of Dublin Town,” is sung to the Southern tune +of the “Bonnie Blue Flag,” the final words of each stanza being,—</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</span></p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“Then it’s hurrah, hurrah,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">For the girls of Dubberlin town;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Hurrah for the bonnie green flag,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And the harp without a crown.”</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>“John Brown’s Whiskey-Bottle’s Empty on the Shelf” and “Give a Man +Time to Roll a Man Down” are too well known to need comment. It is a +fine sight to see eight muscular fellows at the pump-handles in the +dusk of the evening, their broad backs standing forth against the dark +recesses, rising and falling as they sing their favorite choruses, +MacFoy of the port watch and Murphy of the starboard always supplying +the solo parts. Latitude, 7° 56′ south; longitude, 30° 4′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">June 13</span></p> + +<p>Worse and worse! The wind is more ahead than ever, and in the last +twenty-four hours we made six thousand and eighty feet of southing, or +precisely one sea-mile. Between yesterday noon and six in the evening +we did make a few miles of latitude, for we tacked ship at the latter +hour close to Cape St. Agostinho in 8° 40′ south; but after standing +over on the starboard tack till one o’clock to-day, we went back again +to the northward, and at mid-day the sun told us that we had made only +one mile of latitude to the good. I thought that the captain intended +to stand off shore this time for at least two hundred and fifty miles; +but when both watches had dined at one o’clock, we wore round again and +once more stood in for the beach. What a pity it is that we can’t make +better use of this magnificent breeze, which is too strong for even a +main-royal! Free, eleven knots would be our speed now, instead of which +we go diving hard into it jammed on the wind, pegging along at never +more than six knots, four points off our course on the most favorable +tack.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</span></p> + +<p>Last evening we were presented with a most exquisite panorama of the +Brazilian coast. At noon we were immediately east of Pernambuco, about +thirty-five miles off shore; and, continuing on our southwesterly +course, we brought the land aboard twenty-five miles south of that +city at five o’clock. All that we could make out of the shore at that +time was that it consisted of a succession of lofty hills; and it was +not until we came up from supper at six o’clock that we saw the land +distinctly enough to appreciate aught of its beauty, lying as it did +at that hour broad on the starboard beam and ahead. On the quarter +appeared dimly the snow-white angular walls of a little town lying +snugly on an arm of the sea, glowing warm and mellow in the rich light; +while by the aid of glasses we perceived, shrouded in the mists of a +thundering surf, broad stretches of coral sand fringed at high-water +mark with clusters of palmettos and cabbage-palms; back of these, +dancing and shimmering in heat-waves, rolled the sand-dunes; and then +came the series of lovely hills rising tier on tier into the interior, +rich in that wonderfully luxuriant vegetation that clothes the surface +of equatorial Brazil, with the veils of night mist just beginning to +form in the valleys and deep ravines. The whole of this fascinating +scene lay steeped in the after-glow of a superb sunset, which touched +everything with a reddish-golden tinge to be observed only in the +tropics.</p> + +<p>Lying almost entirely within the torrid zone, the climate of Brazil is +naturally a very hot one, and is also extremely humid, the rainfall for +the year at Maranhão amounting to the enormous total of two hundred and +eighty inches, or seven times greater than that of New York. Such an +excess of moisture has a corresponding effect upon its plant life, and +has given Brazil a wealth of vegetation not excelled by any country of +the world. Travellers assert that it is<span class="pagenum" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</span> utterly beyond description, +and that in the ravines and passes near the coast, where the humidity +is intense, it defies man’s utmost efforts at restraint. Even as far +south as Rio, trees split for palings send forth shoots and branches +immediately; and on the banks of the Amazon, the level of which mighty +stream is yearly raised forty feet by the immense rainfall, the +loftiest trees destroy each other by their proximity, and are literally +bound together by rich vines and lianes. In the province of Maranhão, +the grasses, roots, and other plants extending from the brinks of +pools in time weave themselves into vegetable bridges, along which the +traveller wends his way, unaware that he has left terra firma until he +perceives the scaly jaws of an alligator protruding through the herbage +before him. On all sides the vegetation is bewildering, and every +representative of plant life is of a gigantic size.</p> + +<p>But to return to ourselves. Happening to glance ahead a little later +we caught a glimpse of the great light-house on the extremity of Cape +St. Agostinho just as its beacon flashed over the sea, sending its +brilliant needles of light far out over the moon-lit ocean. Just at +dusk a large coasting steamer came unexpectedly out from under the +hills, in whose stern waved the green-and-gold flag of Brazil; and, +heading south across the wide wake of the moon, suddenly vanished in +the gloom beyond the sombre headland. The light on Cape St. Agostinho, +by the way, can compare favorably with our most powerful ones, for its +rays are visible twenty-five miles at sea; the tower being in the form +of a white iron tripod one hundred and sixty feet high, whose apex is +three hundred and sixty feet above the ocean. Indeed, on the whole of +the South American seaboard, from the Guianas to Cape Horn, there is +only one other light which equals it, and that is on Cape Frio, just to +the eastward of Rio Janeiro.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</span></p> + +<p>Speaking of Cape Horn, I wonder when we’re going to see that famous +rock? At this present rate we would be several months in beating down +the coast; if we were only as far south now as the Abrolhos Islands, we +could begin to keep off a little, that being about the first point at +which ships bound to the westward begin to think of bearing away. The +old mate told us the other day that coming to the eastward towards New +York this last time, they unbent the foresail and made some repairs to +it on the main-deck with Cape Horn in sight! This means that there was +not enough sea there at the time to wet the decks, for a sail is never +stretched there if there is any probability of water coming aboard.</p> + +<p>The sea has now returned to its usual Prussian blue, for, being on +soundings yesterday afternoon, it changed to a most beautiful, pale, +transparent green, owing to the white, sandy bottom over which we +sailed, only twenty fathoms away; our least distance from the land +having been about eight miles. Latitude, 7° 57′ south; longitude, 32° +47′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">June 14</span></p> + +<p>Though the Trades are still from the south-southeast, we have done +very well, as an offing of one hundred and thirty miles has enabled +us to hold on to the port tack all day; and as the coast-line south +of Maceió trends slightly to the westward, we may be able to go free +of the land until we reach the Abrolhoses, for which it will no doubt +be necessary for us to make a slight hitch. We were more than seven +days in making nine degrees of latitude; for, a week ago last night, +we passed the St. Paul’s Rocks fifty-five miles north of the line, and +yesterday we had not quite reached the eighth parallel. Can the reader +duplicate this tortoise-like progression in the southeast trade-wind? +It is more like the Doldrums in spite of a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</span> spanking breeze. Sometimes +when there is a lull in the wind the deep voice of Captain Scruggs +will be heard, “Loose the main-royal”; but five minutes later will +come the order, “Let go the main-royal-halliards; and you can put +the gaskets on, Mr. Rarx, we won’t want it any more.” This word +“loose” is almost invariably used at sea, and you never hear “Set the +mizzen-t’-gallant-s’l” or “Hoist the fore-sky-s’l”; they are always +“loosed.”</p> + +<p>At dinner to-day the skipper said, “I’ll bet they’ve been having +trouble off the river Plate lately.” “Why?” said I. “Don’t you see +this swell a-heavin’ up?” he replied; “they’ve been having a southerly +buster down there.” Now, that portion of the South Atlantic in the +vicinity of that vast estuary, the Rio de la Plata, is subject to +terrific gales of wind known as pamperos, because they blow off the +pampas or plains of the Argentine; but the skipper, having lived long +on the coast of Australia, where the hardest gales are called southerly +busters, usually gives that name to the pampero.</p> + +<p>The Rio de la Plata should never be called the Plat River, pronouncing +it as we do the Platte River in Nebraska; if the English form is used +at all, it should be called Plate, which is so universal that one of +the largest, if not the largest, shipping-houses doing business in +South America is known as the Brazil and River Plate Steamship Company.</p> + +<p>A rather singular fact in connection with the skipper is that he has +never been to any one of the three largest and most important ports +between Cancer and Capricorn,—Calcutta, Bombay, or Rio Janeiro. This +is really astonishing, as it would be hard indeed to find another +American sailor brought up in the last generation who had never been +to either Calcutta or Rio; Bombay is more modern. Captain Scruggs +is quite interested in the Nicaraguan Canal project, and he insists +that with its completion will pass<span class="pagenum" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</span> away the sailing ship from the +face of the waters, though I do not entirely agree in this theory. +People also thought that when the Suez Canal was cut through it would +kill the long-voyage trade to the East; yet what are the facts? It +is probable that nearly double the number of sailing vessels pass +Agulhas per year as pass Cape Horn, fully eight hundred rounding +Africa in both directions in a twelvemonth. The amount of case oil +alone from New York and Philadelphia which goes East in sail bottoms +is enormous. Few people, though, realize how much cheaper it is to +ship goods from New York to either San Francisco or China in sailing +vessels than by rail or steamer. For instance, the railway freights +from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans averages about fifteen dollars +per ton; sailing ship rates, from seven to eight dollars per ton, and +often less. Eighty thousand cases of oil, which would be the cargo of +a modern two-thousand net ton iron sailing vessel, are transported to +Shanghai around Good Hope for seventeen thousand dollars; but if they +were sent overland to San Francisco from New York, and then by steamer +to destination, the freight charges would be trebled, for they would +amount to fifty thousand dollars.</p> + +<p>We have just finished reading aloud the book which contains perhaps +the finest descriptions of tropical scenery in English,—Kingsley’s +“Westward Ho.” Nothing could be more charming than the picture of +the delight of the scurvy-ridden fellow-voyagers of Amyas Leigh upon +first landing in the West Indies; while the description of a Barbadian +sunrise is positively entrancing. Latitude, 10° 15′ south; longitude, +34° 35′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">June 15</span></p> + +<p>Another very excellent run was the result of yesterday’s work, even +though we could not steer a better course than<span class="pagenum" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</span> southwest, for we +made not far from three degrees of latitude, finding at noon that +Bahia bore west, distant one hundred and twenty miles, so that we are +at the moment some distance off the land. Last night was one of the +grandest that we ever remember at sea. A strong breeze whistled from +the southeast at an angle of about forty-five degrees to the long +southerly swell, making a rather confused sea in which we sheared +about considerably, our high, powerful bows crushing the steep head +seas which came rushing ceaselessly at us, piling up on either hand +a hissing wall of foam and then flinging it far away on both bows, +which, meeting the next on-rushing wave, and impinging one against the +other, would shoot up to an astonishing height, to be driven back again +in a perfect hurricane of spray, which drenched the forecastle-head, +completely obliterating for the moment the lookout, who emerged from +these showers like the shade of Neptune, with the water dripping from +his oil-skins in the moonlight in glistening rivulets. The moon herself +was full almost at the moment of rising, shining with so great an +effulgence as to necessitate the partial closing of the eyelids if one +looked at the disk, and casting a weird light upon the abysses of a +heavy rain-squall crossing our stern. I don’t know when we have enjoyed +an evening as much as this one, lying at full length in deck-chairs, +watching the mizzen-truck roll through the stars in tremendous arcs, +and listening to the bursting of the seas against the bows and the +hissing of the water as it rushed under the counter. There is but one +word which describes it,—ideal.</p> + +<p>Has any one ever seen a keg of root-beer tapped in hot weather after +it has been well shaken up? Or has any one ever heard of a keg of +root-beer at all. I have always thought of it in bottles. However, +we have one on board, and if the expansive force of a superheated, +well-agitated<span class="pagenum" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</span> barrel of root-beer can be appreciated, it will be +understood that we had a very animated and sprightly thirty minutes +this forenoon. Ever since the commencement of the voyage a beer-keg +of this fluid has been churning and rattling away under one of the +alley-ways which extend aft on either side of the cabin-house. For +some time past the skipper has been cautioning us to save all the +Apollinaris bottles, as he wanted to fill them, in cool weather, with +the root-beer. But he grew impatient, and concluded to broach the keg +this morning, after the contents had been well shaken up for a week in +equatorial heat. Therefore he gathered round about him a phalanx of +empty bottles, and, assisted by the second mate and the boy Sammie, +advanced hardily against the passive “kag.” After much ado, and the +use of sundry expletives and the dripping of perspiration, they got it +mounted on its side upon a low wooden box, wedged it, held a bottle +under the spigot, turned the faucet, and stood by. But something was +wrong; no liquor flowed, so that the spigot must have been plugged +with something. “Mr. Rarx,” said the skipper, “go and get a bit of +stiff wire.” Back came the second mate at the end of a minute, during +which Captain Scruggs was engaged in impotently kicking and pounding +the keg; and when Mr. Rarx had brought the wire, he spent ten minutes +jabbing away with it, eliciting with great force now and then a little +jet of brown foam, which generally hit him somewhere in the face, which +he persisted in holding in front of the spigot. Tiring of this, which +gave promise of lasting all day without bearing fruit, he despatched +the carpenter for an auger, having finally reached the conclusion that +it was for lack of a vent that nothing would flow. The second mate +was intrusted with its manipulation, and very confidently proceeded +to bore a hole in the bung in the upper side. The wildest dream could +not<span class="pagenum" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</span> have pictured huger success. No sooner had the instrument pierced +the wood than, with a hissing shriek, a column of dark liquid as big +as a pencil shot high into the air like the spouting of a whale, +breaking full against Mr. Rarx’s head, after blowing the auger out +of the hole. Then there were frantic shoutings for a plug, while the +little cascade played merrily away, falling in a gentle shower of +amber froth upon those who tried in vain to stay its impetuous flow. +Finally it was plugged, and the skipper called for a tumbler, that +he might draw a glassful of the godly nectar, and, sipping it, gain +courage for the bottling operation. But, oh, misery! No sooner was +the faucet turned than out shot a horizontal stream of root-beer as +large as a garden-hose, and with such incredible force that the liquid +was blown into a sticky foam a few inches from the spigot. Then there +was a rush for utensils on every one’s part but the skipper’s, who +stuck fearlessly to his post in spite of the thick jet of mucilaginous +steam, trying to turn the faucet with a monkey-wrench. During this +exhibition my wife and I stood at the break of the poop, looking down +upon the actors, and simply howling at the old man, who, crouched low +upon the deck, wrestled like a gladiator with the unruly “kag”; and +when he finally emerged from his vapor-bath, with dripping beard and +garments soaked to the skin, I feared that the second mate would die of +apoplexy. However, most of the beer was saved, and we filled and corked +away fully seventy-five bottles of the bubbling mixture. Latitude, 12° +51′ south; longitude, 36° 2′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">June 16</span></p> + +<p>Most doleful to disclose, the Trades began to let go this morning, and +at ten o’clock the sky-sails were set for the first time in several +days, while at the present moment, the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</span> middle of the afternoon, we +are doing wretchedly, even though we have come up to south-southwest. +As for the day, it was really magnificent; temperature of the air, +80°; of the sea, 78°, while the breeze was of that singular mixture of +vigor and balm so often observed in the southeast trade-wind. Not a +cloud specked the deep cobalt of the heavens all day save some feathery +mare’s-tails near the zenith and a few clusters of pearly clouds on the +southeastern horizon.</p> + +<p>As usual, though, there was something to mar the serenity of the +day; how many days are there without some untoward incident to cast +its fell shadow? In this case it was the temper of Captain Scruggs, +who no sooner did he perceive that the wind was letting go than he +at once began to blackguard the men and the weather in wild, lurid +language. Perhaps he wanted to catch up with himself, for it must be +chronicled that three days, actually three long days, seventy-two +hours, have passed without his having consigned any one’s immortal +parts to the fathomless pit! Last evening my wife asked him if about +20° south wasn’t the average spot to lose the Trades; this, in truth, +is about the usual place at which the southeast winds vanish, but the +disagreeable man glared at us for a few seconds and then snapped, “How +do I know? You’re liable to lose ’m anywhere,” with an explosion on the +final word.</p> + +<p>It is strange how he always tries to show that he knows just a little +bit better than any one else; if, for instance, I asked him if +Montevideo wasn’t in 34° 50′ south, he would be certain to reply, “No; +34° 55′,” on which occasions the mate usually gazes in wonder at him, +and then smiles gently at us, as though to say, “You see, you can’t +teach him.”</p> + +<p>Ahead of us, distant from fifty to two hundred miles, lie a number +of shoal spots, called the Royal Charlotte, David<span class="pagenum" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</span> Scott, Hotspur, +Busbridge, Victoria, and Fly Banks. There are more than twenty fathoms +on all of them, though, except on a certain unnamed shoal, thirty miles +south-southeast of the Fly Bank, on which the ship “Professor Airy” +struck in 1875. I wonder whether the water is discolored on these +spots? It would be rather strange to come suddenly upon a stretch of +green sea surrounded on all sides by water of the darkest blue.</p> + +<p>In a copy of <i>Harper’s Round Table</i> on board I found an amusing +article called “A Yankee Skipper’s Trick,” which seemed good enough to +transcribe, so here it is: “A good anecdote is told illustrating the +superior enterprise of the Yankee skippers years ago. The New Bedford +whalers left port for many a long voyage, sometimes to the far north, +at other times to the far south. These intrepid followers of the sea +sought and pursued the whale into the ice-clad latitudes about the +poles with a natural fearlessness. A squadron sent out by Russia to +explore the south seas, and reach the pole if possible, had attained +a degree of latitude which the commodore proudly told himself had +never been reached before by white man or other human beings. While +he reflected upon the fame which would surely embellish his name, +his sailors cried, ‘Land ho!’ Off to the south he descried a long, +low-lying bit of land, and hastened to shape his course to reach it, +there to plant the Russian standard on its highest point, claiming it +in the name of His Majesty.</p> + +<p>“What was his disgust and astonishment when, as his vessel approached +the shore, he observed, over a bit of headland, a flag fluttering from +a mast-head. In a few minutes a little schooner poked her nose around +the point and came sailing smartly over the waves towards his vessel. +The lean, Yankee captain, who was standing in the rigging as the +schooner came up in the wind, yelled,—</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</span></p> + +<p>“‘Ahoy there! What ship is that?’</p> + +<p>“‘His Majesty’s ship the ——.’</p> + +<p>“‘Well, this is the ‘Nantucket’ from Massachusetts. We’re doing a +little piloting in these latitudes, and if you want to run in the cove +yonder, why, we’ll pilot you in for a small charge.’</p> + +<p>“The commodore’s disgust caused him to square his yards and shape his +course to Russia.” Latitude, 16° 11′ south; longitude, 37° 15′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">June 17</span></p> + +<p>I don’t expect that we will weather the Abrolhoses after all; we might +be able to scrape along, but that would be taking chances, which +Captain Scruggs never does. The chief danger in holding on to this +course would be that of drifting foul of the reefs which stud the ocean +in the vicinity of these islands. Therefore at eight o’clock this +evening we will go around on the other tack, and it is to be hoped +that we’ll do better than we did yesterday, with only ninety miles of +latitude to our credit. This day was even finer than its predecessor, +and we had some very grand cloud scenery, the eastern horizon being +covered at five in the afternoon with great cirro-cumulus clouds in +which we could perceive a number of bright luminous spots on the +sea-line, called by sailors “sun-dogs”; being the bases of brilliant +rainbows whose arches were concealed by the heavy clouds, producing a +strange appearance.</p> + +<p>The carpenter is now engaged in hewing out a new maintop-gallant-yard, +a slow but interesting piece of work. The old one is weak and may not +withstand the heavy weather of Cape Horn, and the maintop-gallant-sail +is a very important one. It is as well to observe here, that +whenever anything carries away aboard of this ship it is never +spliced and forced to do further duty, as is the case<span class="pagenum" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</span> on many +vessels; the sheet, clew-line, or whatever has parted, is at once +unrove, and a brand-new rope takes its place. The first illustration +which we had of this was one morning in the Doldrums, when the +maintop-gallant-stay-sail-halliards parted with a crack, and the +half-dozen men on the end of it, among whom was myself, went down in +a heap. Without a word a new piece of manila was rove in its place; +and the same thing happened to the spanker-sheet a few nights ago. +Indeed, this is one of the distinguishing marks of a Yankee ship. You +will rarely find a piece of old running-gear aboard of a square-rigger +flying the stars and stripes.</p> + +<p>Late yesterday afternoon we caught another dolphin, a small one, +weighing about fifteen pounds. He showed none of the splendid blues of +our first fish, though the yellows and greens were very fine. Indeed, +this dolphin, as he was towed through the water under the counter, +resembled nothing so much as a strip of gorgeous, glittering satin, +particularly whenever, as the fish rose slightly above the surface, +a glossy sheen irradiated his lithe, elegant body. And immediately +afterward we captured a bonito, about as large as a bluefish.</p> + +<p>And now we have come to the first piece of inhumanity or gross cruelty +of which either of us has been a witness on board. What we saw before +was not much out of the way, except in regard to the bad language and +the general atmosphere of “toughness” that pervaded the encounters; but +even they were nothing to speak of when the character of the mates on +American sailing ships is taken into consideration. That which I saw +this afternoon, though, went far beyond hazing, for it assumed the form +of full-fledged brutality. I want to begin at the commencement, so as +to bring the whole affair to light and allow the reader to judge for +himself.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</span></p> + +<p>The actors in the little drama which just escaped being a tragedy +were Mr. Rarx and the Finn, Karl Karlsen. This fellow is slow and +thick-headed, with a very hazy idea of English, but is always one +of the first to jump if he understands the order. He was told this +afternoon at about three o’clock to overhaul a certain tackle, one +block of which was belayed to a pin in the rail, while the second mate +stood by, having in his hand another massive block of a threefold +purchase. The captain was below asleep, and I was standing at the +forward end of the poop, not twenty feet from Karl. Suddenly Mr. Rarx, +who was in a very bad humor, as I could see, walked close up to Karl +and picked up a small coil of rope from the deck, and yelling, “You +ain’t doin’ that right, d—— you,” made as though he were going to hit +him. The man at once set about the job in another way; but the second +mate’s temper was so ungovernable that he stepped up to Karl with an +expression in his eyes which I never saw before in any man’s, gave him +a terrific kick with his “letter-carrier” boots, and as the luckless +fellow swung round under the shock and impetus, Rarx drew back the +ponderous block which he still held, and which must have weighed nearly +fifteen pounds, and flung it full against the sailor’s face. I could +hear the thud distinctly, while with a sharp cry the big, powerful man +reeled across the deck and would have fallen prone had it not been for +the main fife-rail, against which he sunk gradually down, the blood +pouring from a wide gash in his nose and forehead, and rapidly forming +a little pond on the deck, while a crimson track stretched from where +he crouched to the second mate, who stood over by the rail with the +block raised above his head, as though challenging any other of the men +hard by to take up the row. Half the watch saw the affair, and if looks +could have annihilated him, Rarx would have dropped<span class="pagenum" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</span> dead on the spot; +and I saw Broadhead and the Frenchman, who were putting an eye-splice +into the end of a wire rope, flush crimson and bend hard over their +work at this miserable act of cruelty.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile Karl remained where he fell, groaning, trying to stop the +flow of blood which was rapidly saturating his clothes; why the block +didn’t crack his head like a walnut will ever remain a mystery to me; +it would have broken the skull of any one but a Russian seaman. For +some few minutes there was a dead silence fore and aft; then Rarx +walked up to Karl, shook him heavily, and cried, “Now, then, get away +out o’ this, you —— —— ——; fine mess you’ve made on the deck. Go +wipe the blood out o’ yer eyes, and bring a swab and get this out the +deck, <i>and don’t you be long about it, neither</i>.” It struck me +that this was rather hard lines, having to mop up your own blood; but +in a few minutes more Karl recovered enough to totter forward, and when +he next appeared he had a bucket of sand and water and a broom, and at +the end of half an hour no trace of the assault remained save a large +gloomy stain, which will have to wear out.</p> + +<p>Later in the evening I remarked to MacFoy that this was the most +villanous and unprovoked piece of brutality that I ever imagined, +and that it was astonishing that a man who appeared to be such a +well-principled fellow as Rarx would do such a thing. “Well-principled, +is it? Huh,” was David’s comment; “peaceable enough to you aft I +guess, but you’d think different if you could see him dark nights on +the main-deck wearin’ ship. Did you ever see a Yankee second mate that +wasn’t a hound?” “I don’t know very much about them personally,” I +answered, “but they certainly have a hard name; the only other American +second mate whom I ever knew was on a foreign ship, where he had to +treat the sailors like men.”<span class="pagenum" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</span> “Oh,” said MacFoy, “what do you think +o’ what you saw this afternoon?” “Well, about the only thing anybody +could say about it is that it was damnable,” I answered. Here the bosun +looked steadily at me and said, “If you’d seen what I have in these +ships for four years you’d think no more o’ that than steppin’ on a +cockroach.”</p> + +<p>At any rate, I’ll never forget the scene at the instant before the +block struck Karl’s face: about half the watch in the rigging looking +angrily down, the clumsy form of the Russian spinning round from the +kick, and the second mate standing over him, red with anger, in the +act of swinging the block well back to gather force for the blow. And +this is what is known as “discipline” in Yankee deep-water men! Well, +my only comment is, thank God that my wife wasn’t on deck to see it. +Latitude, 17° 45′ south; longitude, 38° 5′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">June 18</span></p> + +<p>No one to-day made the least allusion to yesterday’s sinister deed +until this evening; Mr. Rarx was as bland as usual, and after supper +all that the skipper said was, “They tell me the second mate had a +little fun yesterday.” This indifference served to corroborate the +bosun’s remark about what he had seen in Yankee ships. I think that the +skipper wanted me to express my opinion and then he was going to tell +me his in a loud voice before the men; but I asked him if there wasn’t +a ship over to leeward, pointing abaft the beam; it served the purpose +very well, for he fetched up his lumbering, prehistoric telescope and +passed five minutes or so in looking for a vessel which wasn’t there, +so that he forgot all about Rarx and the Finn.</p> + +<p>To our great astonishment we were enabled by a little shift of wind +to fetch by the Abrolhos Islands and to keep<span class="pagenum" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</span> on, as we were on the +port tack. It was a matter of great satisfaction to us all, and it +put the captain in quite a radiant humor. The wind has been pretty +well from the eastward of late, and even if it hasn’t been very +strong, it enabled us for the first time in many days to round in +the weather-braces and take advantage of what there was. Last night +was exactly like the weather during a summer northeaster on the New +England coast, one of those disagreeable spells which occur two or +three times in July and August that fill the hearts of the hotel +proprietors with dismay. A dense drizzle, increasing at times to heavy +showers, prevailed throughout the night, accompanied by a mist which +concealed everything one hundred yards away; while at times we had +short but severe puffs of wind, for which we had to stow the sky-sails. +At 9.30 in the evening a very strong breeze came out of the east; and, +increasing, the second mate, whose watch it was, went forward to haul +down the jib-topsail. So he left us on the poop in a heavy shower, and +in a few minutes we heard some sharp slatting, but paid no attention to +it, supposing that the jib-topsail-sheet had got adrift. Presently Mr. +Rarx came back breathing heavily, and remarked, “Very funny; I don’t +see how that sail could go like that.” “What’s wrong?” I asked. “Wrong? +Why, the main-top-gallant-stay-s’l’s clean gone out the bolt-ropes, and +in a minute we’ll have the old man up here tellin’ me ’twas my fault.”</p> + +<p>Sure enough, in a few moments the captain’s bushy face arose through +the companion-way, and he said without preliminary, “I suppose that was +the main-t’-gallant-stay-s’l that went, eh?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, sir,” answered Mr. Rarx, meekly, “I was——”</p> + +<p>“I suppose you were going to say that you was about to haul it down; +well, you needn’t bother to explain; if<span class="pagenum" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</span> you hadn’t had it too flat +’twouldn’t have went; thirty years ago, men didn’t sign as second mate +till they knew how to trim a sail.”</p> + +<p>The blighting sarcasm with which he said this put the second mate’s +temper on edge again, and I expect that he’ll store this up against +the skipper for possible future use, for he is unquestionably a fine +sailor-man.</p> + +<p>It is rather remarkable that we have caught no fish lately, as the sea +in the vicinity of the Abrolhos Islands is the greatest fishing-ground +on the whole Brazilian seaboard. For twenty-four hours now we have +been on soundings with an average depth of forty fathoms; and while +the water is of a dirty green color, it is wonderfully phosphorescent, +though not quite equalling the water on the equator; still, when the +patent log was hauled in last evening at eight o’clock (it hung up and +down at that hour), the line was a rope of fire, dripping with silver +sparks, and long after it had been coiled away over a pin it continued +to emit brilliant flashes of phosphoric light.</p> + +<p>Our new main-topgallant-yard is coming along nicely. It is being +trimmed down from one of the double top-gallant-yards which the ship +used to carry; this is a rather remarkable fact, that if a vessel +carries double top-gallant-sails the yards will be larger in every +way than if they were single. It would be hard to conceive a more +gnome-like appearance than that presented by the carpenter to-day as he +was hewing at the spar with an adze, seen from a distance of about one +hundred feet; nearer, the illusion vanished. But his tall, peaked felt +hat, immensely broad face, open dungaree-jumper which refused to meet +over his globular person, and short, fat legs, lent him, when he rested +on his adze with wide-spread feet, a wonderfully elfin aspect.</p> + +<p>In a squall this morning I noticed that the mate wore for the first +time a tremendously thick garment of red<span class="pagenum" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</span> cloth, which he called a +llama coat, being made of the wool or hair of that quadruped. It looked +something like a flannel shirt, but was not split up the sides, and +seemed to be as thick as a felt slipper. Mr. Goggins says that he +has never yet seen the rain which can penetrate it. Perhaps the most +remarkable thing about it is the fact that he has worn it for fifteen +years and intends to wear it fifteen more. How sailors hate oil-skins! +Their aversion to them is universal, and seems to be unreasonable. The +captain, for instance, has several ancient, heavy suits which he calls +his Cape Horn clothes. Whenever his presence is required for any length +of time in a heavy rain, he dons one of these suits and goes on deck in +a soft felt hat and a pair of slippers, only to return in fifteen or +twenty minutes with dripping garments, his slippers sobbing at every +step; in two minutes, though, he is arrayed in another suit, with the +same foot-gear, and marches on deck again to repeat this operation as +long as his dry clothes hold out. All this for dislike of oil-skins and +boots. Latitude, 19° 56′ south; longitude, 38° 15′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">June 19</span></p> + +<p>Rio is said to possess a superb climate in the winter months; but +if it is finer than the weather which we are having now it must be +supernaturally beautiful. For twenty-four hours we have run before a +fresh northeast breeze, the only fault to be found with which is the +fact that, as we are now dead before the wind, the after-sails are the +only ones which draw, blanketing the others. The course this morning +was given to the quartermaster, southwest, which will not be altered +except in case of necessity till we have passed the Falklands. No +mention has been made, by the way, of our helmsmen, dignified by the +name of quartermasters. They do not really hold this rank, as<span class="pagenum" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</span> they +are merely sailors who have been picked out by the mates as the best +helmsmen, and receive no more wages than able seamen. The idea of this +is to have only certain men to steer the ship, that they may thoroughly +understand her under all circumstances. It is curious to see how much +less tanned these men are than the others, owing to the protection of +the wheel-house.</p> + +<p>The old mate continues to crawl growlingly about the decks, grumbling +at various actual and phantasmagorical afflictions. His mode of +progression is a sort of creeping prowl, as he thrusts his face into +every nook and cranny, with a hundred wrinkles in his great, flabby +nose, as though he were continuously assailed with disagreeable odors. +He hazes the men a great deal more than the second mate does, though I +do not think that he is particularly courageous; a flock of Gogginses +might, like jackals, prove dangerous, but singly, his valor I’m sure +would dwindle at close quarters. Being a poor seaman, the men have no +respect at all for him, and in the presence of the skipper he bawls at +the sailors and makes a feint of hitting them, glancing at the old man +for approval, as he rolls about, exhorting them in his most rasping +voice to “Come now, git a move on.”</p> + +<p>Mr. Rarx gets several times more work out of his watch, for he knows +how to handle the men; and as he has recovered his equanimity he +continues to exhibit his claims to being a humorist. His men were +hoisting the yards up taut in the second dog-watch yesterday, and when +they came to the maintop-gallant-halliards, they burst into a fine +chanty, “Whiskey”; then when they had finished with the main-yards they +began on the foretop-gallant-halliards, but without a song. The yard +seemed to stick a bit; and as sailors can always do twice the work +with the inspiration of a song, Mr. Rarx called out, “Give us a little +more of that whiskey, fellows”; which so tickled the fellows’ fancies<span class="pagenum" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</span> +that some of them shook in their extremity of mirth, though a sailor +must always laugh at a mate’s joke. If the second mate were not such a +bad-tempered man he would not be an unpleasant companion, for he talks +well and is always very neat; but his recent villanous deed deprives +his conversation of most of its erstwhile attractions, while he appears +to think absolutely nothing of it.</p> + +<p>Louis Jacquin is indisputably the best sailor in the forecastle, though +young Broadhead, the New Yorker, is by no means a bad second. Louis’s +marlinspike seamanship is really beautiful; and it turns out, as I +expected, that he has served a long period in the French navy. Strange +how sailors shift back and forth from man-of-war to merchantman. This +man has good principles, too; for when the little bosun Rumps began to +blackguard the skipper the other day, saying, “I’d like to have a crack +at you ashore,” looking up at the poop, the Frenchman said, “Zat ees +not right”; nor was this intended for me to hear. Louis made a queer +mistake the other day. He was telling Broadhead about the attractions +of Paris, and finally asked him, “Have you evair seen Père la Chère?” +“What’s that?” said Broadhead. “Père la Chère, zee cemetarie,” answered +Jacquin. It was an odd mistake for a Frenchman to make.</p> + +<p>The captain is in fine feather now that we are doing well, but is +annoyed that we do not meet more steamers. I never saw a skipper so +anxious to be spoken and reported as Captain Scruggs; and last evening +when a large steamer passed us bound south, probably to Rio, he almost +wept because it was dark.</p> + +<p>One of our two cabin cats has vanished; it was the “coon-cat,” and +after a long search to-day we were forced to the belief that it has +fallen overboard. It is hard luck, and its companion, the Maltese, is +inconsolable. The captain<span class="pagenum" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</span> seems really cut up about it, for he has all +a sailor’s fancy for animals. One of Mr. Goggins’s traits, however, is +his cruelty to the poor, ugly alley-cat which belongs to him,—another +illustration of the sort of creature that he is. Latitude, 22° 30′ +south; longitude, 39° 25′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">June 20</span></p> + +<p>At nine o’clock this morning I sighted a vessel’s upper canvas ahead, +far down in the southwest; she seemed to be a bark, and as such I +reported her to the skipper. The breeze was from the eastward and +blowing fresh, so that every sail was drawing to the utmost, and we +were doing nearly eleven knots at the time. Slowly we drew up on the +vessel, slowly but certainly, and at eleven o’clock she proved to be a +ship, and we concluded that she was one of the Englishmen which sailed +a week ahead of us: the “Balclutha,” from London, the “Merioneth,” from +Swansea, and the “Peleus,” from Hamburg, all bound to San Francisco, +and the “Annesley,” from Cardiff for Portland, Oregon. It was quite +probable that we would fall in with each other hereabouts. In spite +of the power of our glasses, however, it was impossible to tell for +a long while whether she was a Yankee or a Britisher, until all at +once she yawed, when the sun reflected from her sails showed that they +were of cotton, so that the chances were in favor of her hailing from +the States. We paid no further attention to her, though, till after +dinner, when, by that time having raised her hull out of the water, +we perceived that she carried a stunsail on the starboard side! Here +was a spectacle as unusual as a blue moon in these days of scanty rigs +and short crews! Still, in spite of her extra cloths, we overhauled +her, and soon made the additional discovery that, like ourselves, she +crossed three sky-sail-yards. (What a graceful, slender look they give +to a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</span> vessel!) Captain Scruggs at this instant emerged from the cabin +with his ancient, feeble-looking, clattering, brass telescope under his +arm, levelled it at the flying stranger, bracing the long, tottering +tubes against the top-gallant-backstays, gazed at her for a full +minute, and announced her name,—the “Judas Dowes.” Now, this vessel +sailed from New York for San Diego six days before we did, and though +she has a fine record as a fast sailer, lo! we have overhauled her +on the fortieth day. I am under the impression that Captains Scruggs +and Platt had a wager as to who would pass the equator first; and as +the “Dowes” undoubtedly crossed ahead of us, our skipper was in quite +a bad humor when he found who the stranger was. We asked him if he +couldn’t be mistaken, to which he disdainfully answered, “Mistaken? Of +course not; wasn’t I master of her four years before I took the ‘Hosea +Higgins’?” “Does Platt recognize us, do you suppose?” I asked him then. +“Most certainly he does,” testily replied the captain; “who wouldn’t +know them upper topsails?” And in truth the “Higgins” could be picked +out among a score of other vessels simply by her long topmasts. There +is every prospect of passing the “Judas Dowes” in the night, for at the +moment, 4 <span class="allsmcap">P.M.</span>, we cannot be more than seven or eight miles +apart.</p> + +<p>Many people, even those identified with affairs nautical, will be +surprised to learn that there are still fully half a dozen of our ships +which make a regular practice of carrying stunsails whenever they will +draw. Those vessels which I am certain follow this plan are the “Paul +Revere,” the “Judas Dowes,” and the “Indiana.”</p> + +<p>The sail which the “Dowes” carried this afternoon probably doesn’t +add half a knot to her speed; but some of the ships mentioned carry +such an extra spread of canvas as to very decidedly augment their +sailing powers. For instance,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</span> Mr. Rarx said, “While I was second +mate of the ‘Paul Revere’ awhile ago, we had stuns’ls that added a +thousand square yards to the ship’s canvas and put two knots on her +speed.” Some seafaring people of the present day do not believe that +fifty years ago our famous clippers carried royal-stunsails, a leading +maritime publication in New York saying a year ago, “We never heard +of a ship-master foolish enough to carry royal-stunsails.” Now this +is a mistake, for Mr. Goggins has positively asserted that about +thirty years ago he was in a bark for some months that set these +auxiliary sails, the vessel’s name, according to the mate, being the +“Chickloa,” so called after a large coffee plantation in Guatemala. Far +more conclusive proof, however, is to be found in “Two Years before +the Mast,” in which Dana, always minutely accurate, mentioned the +royal-stunsails set on the ship “Alert,” in which he returned to Boston +from California.</p> + +<p>Last evening at the pumps I had some interesting yarns from Murphy, who +is a round, jolly, chubby individual, very active and good-natured. The +second mate says that this fellow is not at all a bad lot, and that +his only fault lies in his inclination to be a little “fresh.” Murphy +commenced about the American bark “St. James,” in which he went out +from New York to Shanghai in ninety-seven days three years ago. “Oh, +but she’s just a daisy, she is! Why, she’s a square-rigged yacht. And +go, I tell you honest, I saw her log fifteen knots on that voyage under +the tops’ls and fores’l between Tristan d’Acunha and the Cape; and if +ever you want to sail with a nice man, you ship with Cap’n Banfield; +there’s no better.” As a matter of fact, the “St. James,” which is a +very large vessel to be bark-rigged, being of fifteen hundred tons, +is the most yacht-like square-rigger under the stars and stripes, and +a friend of mine who went out to Shanghai in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</span> her on this very voyage +which Murphy mentioned, in speaking from a passenger’s stand-point, +corroborated every word of the sailor’s, and said that it would be +impossible to find a more agreeable man to sail with than Captain +Banfield, who for some time was in the large Boston schooner yacht +“Alert.”</p> + +<p>In contradistinction to this fast passage of the “St. James” friend +Murphy spoke as follows: “The last time I went round the Horn was in +the Yankee ship ‘Centennial,’ and we were a hundred and ninety-nine +days from New York to ’Frisco. We had a terrible time off Cape Horn, +and ran back twice to the Falklands for repairs, and at last a third +time we bore away for Montevideo. We passed close to Stanley this time, +too, but there was a heavy gale on and we dasn’t try for that place +again. As we ran by, though, we saw an American ship tryin’ to weather +the Billy Rocks at the entrance to Stanley Harbor, and we passed so +close to her that I heard the cap’n say as how he could see the sailors +in the riggin’ with the glasses. We afterward found out ’twas the ‘City +of Philadelphia.’” Then I remembered the tragedy of this ship. She +sailed from Philadelphia for San Francisco a little over two years ago. +Her captain had just bought her for himself, and she had on board a +passenger travelling for his health. The vessel was disabled off Cape +Horn, bore away for Stanley for repairs, missed stays off the harbor, +struck on the terrible Billy Rocks in a gale of wind, and every soul on +board perished.</p> + +<p>The last Yankee square-rigger to lay her bones upon the beach was the +“Commodore,” which ran on Malden Island in the Pacific, in 5° south and +155° west, about a year ago, while on a voyage from Honolulu to New +York with sugar. All hands saved.</p> + +<p>Murphy, like Louis, is a man-o’-war’s man, and said that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</span> the last +government vessel in which he served was the “Olympia.” “Oh, Lord, +she’s a terror for work,” he added. “I’ll bet she can’t beat this +packet in that line,” said one of the men. “She can’t, eh? I’d just +like to see you try her once. This ship’s a playground compared to +her.” This, in part, bears out what Mr. Rarx said, that this is one of +the hardest ships for work that he has ever seen. <i>If sailors get +enough to eat</i>, though, by far the best way to run a ship is to +keep them hard at work continuously; they will always be in far better +humor, and when they turn in they will think more about sleep than +about imaginary grievances, which foremast hands are very prone to do. +Latitude 25° 12′ south; longitude, 42° 14′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">June 21</span></p> + +<p>Oh, simple, childish Captain Platt of the “Judas Dowes!” This morning +when day broke we looked in vain for this vessel, for behold the watery +expanse void of objects fashioned by the hand of man save ourselves. We +had confidently expected to see the “Dowes” upon our quarter, where, +in truth, she would have been if Captain Platt hadn’t shown the white +feather, sheering off under cover of the darkness and secreting himself +beyond the horizon.</p> + +<p>How odd it is to meet an acquaintance away down here near the end +of Brazil! The last time that we saw the “Judas Dowes” she lay on +the opposite side of the pier from the “Higgins,” both ships having +just come in from sea; and lo! we renew our intimacy far down here, +thousands of miles from home, below the southern tropic. And a sort +of mutual good-fellowship springs up between us, for are we both not +going to fling down the gauntlet to the dreadful Horn in the darkness +and gloom of midwinter?<span class="pagenum" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</span> Everything is so very smooth and sunny and +cheerful here at present, that it is hard to believe that there are, no +doubt, at this moment, giant four-masters struggling in the grip of an +Antarctic sou’wester, hove to, with a tarpaulin in the after-rigging, +or driving before it for their lives, buried to the rails in those +great Cape Horn surges which roll so grandly onward in their endless +journey around the globe.</p> + +<p>Turning, then, from such violent scenes, it is doubly pleasant to +be wafted thus along over a motionless sea, rippled by the fresh +northeasterly breeze that blows us over two hundred miles of water +every day. It is warm, too, for this latitude at this season, 77° +at noon, for the sun to-day reached the most northerly point of his +declination, and at four o’clock this morning, at Greenwich, he entered +the constellation of Cancer, ushering in the first day of the southern +winter.</p> + +<p>Our skipper has formed the very obnoxious habit of immersing beer and +Apollinaris bottles in the galvanized iron bucket which holds our +drinking-water in the pantry, for the purpose of cooling them off; so +that we were shocked one day to observe several labels floating about +in the water, having added to it glue and other equally unpleasant +foreign substances. Fortunately, the weather will soon be cold now, +which will, I hope, put an end to these objectionable proceedings.</p> + +<p>Every Sunday thus far Captain Scruggs has blossomed out in a white +“biled” shirt, with a standing collar turned over in front, by reason +of which he suffers torments throughout that day, until about three +in the afternoon, when indications of a sudden metamorphosis begin to +appear. First he begins to move restlessly in his chair, elevates and +depresses his chin with great force, inserts his hand inside the band +and tugs away at it, and finally,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</span> unable to stand it any longer, off +comes the offending collar with a great wrench, while he passionately +nods and revolves his massive head, to free himself of all restraint, +as though he had been in a pillory.</p> + +<p>It is a curious fact that hardly a single ship-master will say anything +in favor of Nelson; personally, I have never yet met one who would +admit that this greatest of sea-fighters was better or worse than any +other naval commander, for all of whom they appear to have a silent +disdain. A sea-captain usually takes as his model Napoleon or Cæsar or +even the present emperor of Germany; our skipper reveres the memory +of Napoleon and considers him the embodiment of everything grand and +exalted; as for Nelson, he won’t even deign to talk about him, and +brusquely dismissed the subject to-day by saying that Nelson didn’t +even have much command or influence over his men!</p> + +<p>There was a vast deal of shouting and confusion on board all day, +occasioned by the shifting of the old sails to the new, strong suit for +Cape Horn; as the captain said, “Now we’re gettin’ ready for business.” +It is the general idea that old sails, nearly worn out, are bent for +the bad weather, whereas the very newest of all are sent aloft, for old +canvas would melt like wet paper in a really hard squall. Therefore the +ship now glitters in a brand-new suit of clothes and presents quite a +fine appearance; a yachtsman, however, would contemplate with dismay +sundry streaks of mildew and tar-stains on the main-sail, though this +is the first time that it has ever been stretched on a yard. So long +are our topmasts that the big, upper main-topsail has a double row +of reef-points in it; all the uppers are three times as deep as the +lowers, which seem but strips of tape in comparison; when this vessel +has nothing set but the lower topsails, it must verily be a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</span> howling +gale. Latitude, 27° 50′ south; longitude, 44° 30′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">June 22</span></p> + +<p>Good-by, sweet north wind! Farewell, bright, blue skies and balmy +weather! We turned out this morning to find the ship ploughing into a +short, severe sea, heading south-southeast, with nothing set above the +topsails and a strong wind whistling from southwest, or dead ahead. +The change came last evening in the second dog-watch; it was hard upon +eight o’clock, and the mate was telling me something about the fit +of the upper mizzentop-sail, when, looking ahead, he suddenly cried, +“By jimminy, look at that cloud; here comes the river Plate,” and ran +forward, bawling, “Let go the sky-sail-halliards!” Looking quickly +toward the southwest I beheld a very wonderful sight; for, extending +from west to east, about twenty degrees above the horizon, was a +strange, narrow band of black cloud which came rushing toward us at +headlong speed, with a gray bank of mist beneath it extending to the +horizon. This mass had apparently risen by the exercise of some magic, +for fifteen minutes previously there was not the least indication of +it in the sky. Even as we looked, another ribbon of sable cloud formed +at an angle of forty-five degrees to the first, and cornucopia-shaped +(though not vertical like a tornado), with the big end toward us, came +charging down upon us with all our kites aloft.</p> + +<p>The mate’s yell brought the skipper on deck, who sang out instantly, +“Get the sky-sails and royals in as quick as you can, Mr. Goggins. Keep +her off there; hard up.” This last to the helmsman; for in an instant +our northerly breeze had been nipped off, and the wind was now from +the west; therefore, as the yards were squared, there was<span class="pagenum" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</span> a great +thrashing about of new canvas. Nothing parted, though, and by 8.30 we +were pretty well straightened out, but were surprised an hour later to +see the wind let go a good deal, while the ship came up to her course +again, southwest. But the captain, glancing at a gray mist to windward, +muttered, “There’s dirt in that yet”; and sure enough, at five this +morning we had our first taste of nasty weather, and breakfasted in a +severe squall which played tenpins with the dishes. Once more it eased +up before dinner and we set the fore- and mizzentop-gallant-sails; but +while the skipper was enjoying his postprandial siesta, the second mate +came below and, poking first his head and then his shoulders into the +cabin in that peculiarly cautious manner of mates desiring to speak to +the old man, aroused him with, “There’s too much wind coming for the +t’-ga’nt-s’ls, sir”; to which the captain answered, “All right; tie +’em up,” jumping on deck, whither we followed him. It is remarkable +how quickly sailors rouse themselves from insensibility to alert +action; only a moment previously the captain was breathing heavily in +a deep sleep, yet no sooner did Mr. Rarx touch him and make the above +observation than the answer came instantly, as though the skipper were +talking in his sleep.</p> + +<p>The wind when we reached the deck was rapidly increasing and had +knocked us off to south again, with a bad, greasy look to windward, +and it was raining heavily. The men were hauling on the lee +maintop-gallant-clew-line and buntlines, while Mr. Rarx was settling +away the halliards and swearing that never, since Noah took charge of +the ark, was there a slower gang on a ship’s deck, as he ordered four +hands aloft to put the gaskets on the sail, the wind blowing their +oil-skin jackets up over their heads as they trotted up the ratlines, +exposing them to a hard drenching in the pelting rain.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</span></p> + +<p>During the forenoon watch we sighted a sail, which was doubtless +the “Judas Dowes” again. It is astonishing how enormously a slight +elevation will add to the visibility of objects at sea. From the deck, +for instance, this vessel was sunk to her royals, and at the moment it +was utterly impossible to tell whether she was a ship or a bark; but by +mounting to the top of the wheel-house, only seven feet above the deck, +all three of her upper topsails were in plain sight.</p> + +<p>We saw Louis Jacquin fly into a regular Frenchman’s passion yesterday +afternoon while shifting the sails. He was at the lee upper +mizzen-topsail yard-arm, putting the finishing touches on some gear, +when the second mate shouted up to him, “All ready to sheet home?” To +which he answered, “All ready, sair”; evidently misunderstanding the +question; for no sooner did those below man the sheet on which Louis +was seated than crack! went that individual’s black head against the +under side of the yard, and he was then thrown off to leeward, only +preventing himself from going over for good by a piece of wonderful +agility. Oh, what a rage he was in! He thought that Mr. Rarx did it +intentionally, and the atmosphere smoked with foreign imprecations; +and even at that distance we could see his angry blue eyes (he has +china-blue eyes and raven hair) snapping and popping away as he roared +down, “Eh! well, sair; what is zee mattair below? Do you want to heave +me ovair side wiz your sheet?” and it was several hours until he +recovered his composure.</p> + +<p>Our new maintop-gallant-yard is all but finished and has been secured +under the starboard rail till needed. A little remains still to be +done to it, and these finishing touches the goblin carpenter insists +on bestowing upon it in spite of the showers of spray; and it is +an amusing sight to watch him pop out of his shop, snip off a few +shavings, working<span class="pagenum" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</span> like a demon for thirty or forty seconds, and +then pop into his den again to avoid a sea. By reason of all this +spray flying and damp weather, I have donned my Cape Horn red-leather +slippers purchased from the slop-chest and said to be impervious to +water. But they defy comfort equally well, being as inflexible as Cape +Horn itself, and are spangled inside with perfect little galaxies of +wooden pegs, so that I fain would have boiled them as the pilgrim +did his pease. If man were provided with hoofs instead of feet, it +is conceivable that he might contrive to become accustomed to these +slippers; as it is, I cannot understand it.</p> + +<p>Having crossed the thirtieth parallel, we are now “off” the river Plate +in the sailor’s sense, who always speaks of being off the Plate when +between 30° and 40° south. At least one gale is usually experienced +before these ten degrees of latitude have been crossed, though ships +generally reach the thirty-fifth degree before anything happens. +Latitude, 30° 25′ south; longitude, 45° 33′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">June 23</span></p> + +<p>A pampero! By heaven’s thunder, we are battling in the vortex of one +of these river Plate howlers, with a high, confused sea, and the ship +plunging heavily into it, almost denuded of canvas! Yesterday at 4.30 +a reef was tied in the foretop-sail, as the wind showed signs of +rapidly freshening; but there was a lull from five until midnight, +when it began to breeze up again, and when we went on deck at 7.30 +this morning, behold! a strong gale coming out of the west-southwest +and the ship, under a reefed maintop-sail and foresail, was pounding +considerably in a very ugly sea, but not taking much green water +aboard. By the way, when a ship is under an upper maintop-sail, it is, +of course, to be understood that all three lower topsails<span class="pagenum" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</span> are set as +well; and a “reefed fore- and maintop-sails” means only the uppers, as +the lowers are too narrow for reef-points.</p> + +<p>Wonderful to relate, there astern of us at daybreak was the redoubtable +“Judas Dowes,” with the same canvas set as ourselves. We knew her +by her stunsail-boom, and she was apparently gaining on us and was +making better weather of it than we were. I never heard the wind so +shriek and roar in a ship’s rigging as it did this morning, and it +whipped the tops off the seas and sent them flying aboard in storms +of whistling spray, which seemed to cut the face like powdered glass. +It kept on breezing, too, and at 9.30 the old man ordered another +reef tied in the maintop-sail. Thus far the damage from wind or sea +was limited to the injury of one man, Louis Jacquin, who was thrown +across the forecastle-head against an anchor-fluke with great force, +badly lacerating his left leg, and incapacitating him from other work +than steering. And still the wind increased, and at half-past eleven +the skipper estimated its velocity at fifty-five nautical miles an +hour. At noon I started to go on deck to bring down a book which I had +left in the wheel-house; and, without stopping to put on oil-skins, I +got into a leather jacket and went up out of the companion door. The +captain was leaning against the lee side of the wheel-house, and I +was about to join him, when he called out, “Hey, don’t you see that +sea,—jump!” I looked over my shoulder and beheld a huge hill of water +rising higher and higher alongside, in that peculiar, lazy manner of +very large waves. Still, trusting to my own judgment, I did not think +that it would break aboard, when there was a crash like a broadside +of artillery, relieving me of any further suspense, and I was swept +completely off my feet (and this on the poop), only saving myself +from bringing to against the rail by a lucky clutch<span class="pagenum" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</span> of the lazarette +hatch-house. Then swash came the water back again, and I was once more +half buried in the cold brine; but, watching a chance, the skipper +and I shot across to the companion door, opened it, and were assailed +with the cry, “The cabin’s flooded,” which rang out above the gale. +It was even so. The great sea had stove the forward skylight on the +cabin-house, and had deluged the dining-room with hundreds of gallons +of salt-water. It is impossible to conceive of such a wreck as we +encountered below. The poor little gentle Malay was leaning against +the table almost in tears, trying to keep his feet under him, while +Sammie was doing noble work with a bucket, baling out the water which +was swirling about with the rolling, to a clinking chorus of plates, +cruets, thick glass tumblers (as indestructible as granite), knives, +forks, and spoons, which had been swept off the table when the water +broke full upon it. Ten minutes later our dinner would have been +reposing on it; and fancy the calamity in that event! But it is too +dreary to contemplate. Indeed, the dinner was delayed nearly an hour, +and we had neither soup nor dessert,—the first occasion on which we +ever knew these courses to be omitted at sea; the weather must truly +be violent when it so happens. But we had plenty of good scorching hot +coffee; and, it might be asked, why is it that during the heaviest +weather at sea the coffee is always boiling, while in one’s private +house it is only after a protracted warfare with the cook that the +coffee comes in at a higher temperature than lukewarm?</p> + +<p>Well, the wind kept on blowing still harder, and at two in the +afternoon had attained the fury of a full-grown pampero. And the sea! +Oh, how it boiled and seethed like frothy cream! And how the wind +screamed aloft in the squalls! Fortunately, they came at comparatively +long intervals, with sunshine between; but while one lasted it<span class="pagenum" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</span> was +nearly impossible to catch sight of a square yard of dark water, for +the surface was as white as milk; and the crests of the tall seas were +fairly wrenched off and shot through the air with terrific force, the +atmosphere being full of flying spoondrift which the toughest skin +couldn’t face, while the horizon was everywhere filled with ponderous, +breaking seas. Our motion all day was very severe: first a heavy roll +which dipped the lee rail under, while the water boiled up to the lee +fore-dead-eyes; then the awkward weather roll down the windward side of +the sea; and finally a deep, headlong dive into the valley, with a wall +of water on either hand. The skipper thought that the average height +of the larger seas was about forty feet from crest to trough,—not so +large as the Cape Horn rollers; but it must be borne in mind that this +was a very quick, vicious sea, with not more than three hundred feet +between the crests, so that solid water was bound to come aboard even +on the poop.</p> + +<p>Well, well, it was a magnificent sight; and as we are now accompanied +by a cheerful flock of Cape pigeons, everything has a true Southern +Ocean look. My wife was not in the least frightened during the day; +but she had such a good grounding on our first voyage that it is not +astonishing. We made no departure in the twenty-four hours but two +degrees of latitude, which was extremely good work, considering that we +were by the wind in a pampero. Latitude, 32° 25′ south; longitude, 45° +33′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">June 24</span></p> + +<p>In the morning watch to-day the gale broke after blowing for +twenty-four hours, the main-sail being set at four o’clock, during +which process both mates were knocked down flat on the deck by an +unexpected sea while they<span class="pagenum" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</span> were standing by the main-hatch. At eight +this morning the wind had moderated to a light, fitful breeze, and we +wallowed all the forenoon in a high, broken sea; indeed, throughout +the night we could get but little sleep owing to the severe rolling. +Glancing to leeward as soon as we appeared on deck, there was our old +friend the “Dowes” on our beam, distant a little more than a mile, +bobbing about under her top-gallant-sails as we were, though she +carried her cross-jack and we the spanker. She made, indeed, a fine +picture as she forged sullenly ahead, showing a glistening sheath of +copper as she divided the slopes of the larger seas, with a glint +of brass from the poop when the sun peered out from between light +showers. At nine o’clock we perceived several agitated figures close +to her wheel, and presently a string of flags blew out and were run +up to her gaff-end, and quite a little conversation ensued. The first +signal which Platt made was DWV, signifying “How are you?” This we +answered with BRC, which is to say, “All well.” Then followed in rapid +succession, “When did you sail?” “When did you pass the equator?” “A +pleasant voyage,” to all of which we replied with the various flag +combinations which spelled the words; each then dipped the ensign +three times, and the interview was brought to a close. It was very +interesting thus conversing with the sly wretch, and it is singular +how much interest foremast hands always take in such proceedings, +carefully following every shift of flag, some of the older sailors +always professing to be able to read the signals, often telling their +messmates the most absurd things, which they implicitly believe.</p> + +<p>I never saw so great a change in any one as came over Captain Scruggs +yesterday during the gale. He was as quiet and retiring as the most +bashful of individuals, and in fact exhibited an amount of anxiety +surprising in so aggresive<span class="pagenum" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</span> and domineering a person. Nearly all +masters of sailing ships, as noted before, are nervous in bad weather; +and in truth, a gale of wind at sea is something to make one quiet +and mindful of man’s trivial strength when measured against the +mighty powers of nature. But the captain was unnaturally reserved and +almost crushed, and asked me half a dozen times what I thought of +it; while at 2.30 in the afternoon, standing on the weather side of +the wheel-house, he put his face close to my ear and shouted, “It’s +blowing harder than ever,” with a rising inflection, as though awaiting +my inexperienced opinion. This morning, however, he was his same old +self again, drenching Sammie with heavy showers of profanity on the +least provocation. In spite of his depression yesterday, the skipper +gave vent to one of his quaint sayings. At the time he had on a cap, +which, though not tied under his chin, resisted the utmost violence of +the squalls; on commenting upon this to him, he cried, “They’re great +things; you ought to have one; ’twould stop on as long as your pants.”</p> + +<p>Some of the sailors are beginning to grumble even so soon as this. I +had a talk with old Kelly this afternoon at the pumps and in a low +voice he let fall his opinions on various subjects. Now, this man +has been well educated and talks evenly, without effort, and the +inflections and tone of his voice indicate that by birth his natural +sphere in life is a good deal higher than that of a common sailor. +“Well,” he remarked. “I’ve been in square-riggers for thirty-three +years now, but I never did see one like this for yelling and cursing; +why, they knock all the sense out of a man’s head the way they shout. +And work, you talk about galleys, but there never was a gang of slaves +driven as we are.” This must be taken with the usual amount of salt, +which should always be liberally sprinkled over the conversation of the +average sailor; still, when a second<span class="pagenum" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</span> mate acknowledges that the men +are hard pushed, there is not much doubt about its being true. Kelly is +right, though, about the shouting of Captain Scruggs; if there wasn’t +so much sea-room I believe that we would all be deafened by this time; +and the worst part of it is that this sort of thing is absolutely +useless. I have frequently known the skipper to work the men into such +a state that they were paralyzed and unable to execute the simplest +order.</p> + +<p>At the present moment, sitting in the cabin, we can hear the wind +beginning to sing again in the rigging, and a second gale would not +surprise us in the least, for there is, in addition, a heavy swell +rolling up from the southwest, all of which cannot be the result of our +late gale.</p> + +<p>This roaring of the wind aloft when it is blowing very hard is +resolvable into several different tones: the heavy shrouds taking +the base, the somewhat lighter backstays resembling the barytone, +the halliards and braces standing for the tenor, while the buntlines +and clew-lines take the part of a piercing falsetto, as shrill as +a thousand piccolos; the whole blending into a resonant chorus of +orchestral power, with grand, majestic crescendi like the double open +diapason of a cathedral organ. Latitude 32° 35′ south; longitude, 44° +50′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">June 25</span></p> + +<p>The question which agitates us at this moment is, are we going to +have another pampero? for it is breezing up fast from west-southwest, +the same old quarter. We didn’t have much wind this forenoon, but by +dinner-time it freshened so that at one o’clock the skipper said to +the mate in tones of despair, “Get that upper mizzentop-sail in, Mr. +Goggins”; and no sooner were the men down on deck again than came +the order, “Reef the foretop-sail.” All hands were on deck, and the +foreshrouds were instantly<span class="pagenum" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</span> filled with the yellow figures scurrying +aloft, and in half an hour the ship was once more under snug canvas.</p> + +<p>At four yesterday afternoon, chancing to look under the foot of +the main-sail, my wife and I saw a large four-masted bark under +top-gallant-sails bound north and steering in such a way as to pass +within easy signalling distance; and the skipper lost no time in +appearing on deck in answer to a summons, at once ordering the ship’s +number to be made. On came the stranger, and in a few minutes we could +see that she had lost her mizzen-royal, yard, mast, and everything. +She was a very ugly vessel, narrow and dingy, built of wood, with +a curious stern like nothing we had ever seen before, and no more +apparent sheer than a billiard-table. Very soon she was abreast of us, +but no answering flags fluttered from her gaff, and we wondered what +manner of ship this was thus to ignore signals. We thought that she was +going to pass us by completely unnoticed, when there crawled feebly +to her spanker-gaff the green, white, and red banner of Italy. The +meaning of this manœuvre was that this ill-starred old ship, which was +evidently an ancient steamer, was totally destitute of flags bar her +national ensign; and, having no signals, she would, of course, possess +no code-book, and therefore our number, standing out stiffly a hundred +feet from the deck, would be quite unintelligible to her.</p> + +<p>No sooner was this ship hull down astern than another one arose +ahead. We were below at the time, and when we reached the deck we +were almost abreast of each other. Our name was still flying from the +signal-halliards, while the other had hoisted FGH, meaning “What is +your longitude?” We gratified her wish and she doubtless got our name +all right, but refused to tell us hers; but, dipping her ensign, went +surging heavily along on her homeward-bound course. A long time passed +before we could make<span class="pagenum" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</span> out what her ensign was, for it was a flag seldom +seen on the ocean highways, and the mate had the honor of being the +first to distinguish it. It was the flag of Chile: a broad horizontal +band of red below, the upper half being divided into two squares, white +and blue, with a large white star in the upper left-hand corner. She, +too, was a wooden ship, but not so villanous-looking as the Italian, +and carried double top-gallant-sails on the fore and main. We all hope +that she’ll report us, for we have sailed through thirty-six degrees +of latitude without having sighted any vessel which would be likely to +report us on arrival. How happy our relatives and friends will be when +they see our report in the ship-news columns by that steamer just north +of the line, “Spoken, ship ‘Hosea Higgins.’ Scruggs, New York for San +Francisco, June 6. Latitude, 2° north; longitude, 28° west!”</p> + +<p>To-day at noon we were almost exactly in the latitude of Cape Agulhas, +so that the Horn is thirteen hundred miles south of the southernmost +extremity of the Eastern Hemisphere, a difference of latitude greater +than that which separates Halifax and Key West, or New York and Havana. +Latitude, 34° 46′ south; longitude, 45° 20′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">June 26</span></p> + +<p>At quarter to five yesterday the skipper, thinking that we would do +better on the other tack, wore ship at that hour in half a gale of +wind. There was a deal of excitement and bad language on the captain’s +part, which so rattled the helmsman that we were thirty-five minutes +in wearing, about eighteen or twenty minutes being our average. There +was a heavy sea running at the time, too, and in spite of cautions my +wife insisted upon sitting on top of the after-cabin skylight during +the process of wearing, and when we began to roll heavily when before +the wind and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</span> sea, the expected happened; for my wife fetched away +and would have had a very severe fall if the captain hadn’t grasped +her tightly and held on. I tried to reach her in time, but lost my +foothold, sat down vehemently, shot straightaway across the smooth +deck-house with incredible speed, and brought to with a smash against +the deck-house monkey-rail. I kept astonishingly cool in the flight +across, and even selected where to put my feet when I should reach the +rail; indeed, it was an illustration of the theory that if a man is +not paralyzed with horror at some frightful spectacle the presence of +danger sharpens his wits, and his mind becomes clear and calculating. +Immediately after wearing, the captain ordered the main-sail reefed, +and at eight in the evening a single reef was tied in the maintop-sail, +the weather being very squally, with much rain and hail.</p> + +<p>To-day dawned with a light west-southwest wind and a clear sky, with +a long, southerly swell which made us roll dreadfully all night. At +nine o’clock we broke off to the southward of northwest; so the captain +wore round once more, and now we are making south by west half west, +Skippers have an odd way sometimes of saying south <i>by</i> west, +accenting strongly the “by” as a precaution against mistaking the +course for south-southwest, if slurred over quickly.</p> + +<p>We thought that we had finished with the “Judas Dowes,” but no; +this morning at dawn she was in plain view, five miles astern, and +overhauled us so rapidly that when we went on the other tack she had +neared us to three miles. No sooner had she observed us in the act of +wearing than up went her main-sail and cross-jack, and she followed +suit; there is no gainsaying the fact that the “Dowes” is the faster +ship on a wind, though free things are reversed. By standing so long on +the starboard tack<span class="pagenum" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</span> through Wednesday’s gale and some heavy winds since +we found, when braced up on the port tack last night, that the cargo +had shifted slightly, and that on this leg the ship had a tendency +to roll to windward. The captain said that the cargo hadn’t actually +shifted, but had listed, as sailors call it, the effect on the ship +being perceptible to no one but a seaman.</p> + +<p>Mr. Rarx told me the other day that he spent two years on the West +African coast, between Sierra Leone and Lagos, aboard of an English +supply steamer; and that while there he saw what, in his estimation, +was the loftiest-rigged vessel that ever floated. “You can talk about +your talkabouts,” said he, “but that English man-o’-war had four yards +above her main-royal. I’m tellin’ you a fact,” he added.</p> + +<p>Well, we are dawdling away day after day up here in about 35° south +instead of clipping down past the Plate the other side of 40°. The +captain says that after we have passed that parallel until we reach +50° south we will probably have a number of fine days, clear and +exhilarating, with magnificent sunsets. We have had some good views +of the Magellan Clouds lately, as the sky at night in the south has +been quite clear. They are strange-looking things, with somewhat +the appearance of the nebula in Andromeda. Latitude, 34° 39′ south; +longitude, 46° 26′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">June 27</span></p> + +<p>Very strong west to west-southwest winds, and the vessel laboring +in a broken sea in corkscrew dives under single-reefed fore- and +maintop-sail. It was fine up to midnight, when it clouded over and +commenced to blow, so that we had to shorten sail; and at eight this +morning, the ship diving deeply, the upper mizzentop-sail was stowed<span class="pagenum" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</span> +altogether. The “Dowes” made a valiant attempt to hold on to us; but I +think that we can carry on better in heavy winds, for when day broke +she had vanished astern.</p> + +<p>Last evening at the pumps Olsen and I talked together for the first +time. He is a very decent fellow and the quietest man in the ship. “I +never did see anythin’ like the shoutin’ here,” he observed, the first +thing. “Oh, blow that,” quoth Murphy; “it goes in one ear and out the +other.” “That’s all right,” answered Olsen, “but I ain’t used to it; +and every time the old man hollers me heart’s in me mouth. If I ever +sign in an American ship again it’ll be the ‘S. P. Hitchcock.’ When me +and Coleman come round from Honolulu in her little while ago, we did +more work in one watch there than we do here all day, and there wasn’t +any yellin’ at all. You never saw Cap’n Gates on the main-deck neither; +he knew his business. On the whole, I like British vessels about the +best of any, except the way they carry on is fearful, and bein’ iron +ships they can stand it. I sailed in the British ship ‘Dominion’ once +from Barry to San Francisco, and I never did see such sail-carryin’. +As for the main-deck, you couldn’t put your foot on it in bad weather +without fear of goin’ overboard. One night in the Pacific, about 45° +south, in a southerly gale, there came a crack, and away went all three +t’-gallant-masts overboard, all from carryin’ on.”</p> + +<p>Olsen’s remark about Captain Gates’s knowing his business was a cut at +Captain Scruggs for prowling around the deck forward at all hours of +the day and night. Sailors hate this; and while a ship-master has the +right to scour his vessel fore and aft if he sees fit, he is generally +never seen forward of the galley, unless something special has happened.</p> + +<p>After dinner to-day, when we went up on the poop, we<span class="pagenum" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</span> found that +both wind and sea had increased, but there was nothing to warn us of +what was to happen. We had arranged the folding-chairs against the +wheel-house, sheltered from the violence of the wind by the bulwarks, +and I was in the act of arranging a rug around my wife, when the +skipper cried out, “Now, then, mind yourself!” We felt the ship rising +higher and higher on an unusually heavy sea, and, looking forward, were +just in time to see a great, white cataract roar over the weather-side +abaft the main-rigging. Half of it tumbled into the waist, while the +other half broke with a stunning crash full against the forward end of +the poop-deck-house. It wrenched away a heavy wooden shutter, built to +repel just such an attack as this, snapping a thick brass hook as if +it had been of glass, washed away a short, massive ladder leading to +the top of the deck-house, and then bore down upon us like a freshet. +Captain Scruggs again came to the rescue, and, picking my wife up, +chair and all, held her clear of the flood; while the only thing for +me to do, seeing that my wife was safe, was to fall across one of the +stern-bitts hard by and lift my legs out of the water as I best could; +and here I remained for two minutes, floundering and wallowing about +as though on a pivot, and this just after an especially hearty dinner. +When most of the water had run off, the skipper placed my wife’s chair +on the deck again with such dexterous cunning as to disengage the +supporting-bar in the rear, letting the whole contrivance down flat, +so that my wife lay prone upon the deck in the chill sea-water, which +still swirled about our feet. It didn’t seem to disturb him much, and +he only remarked, as he stamped on the deck, squirting little jets of +water out of his Cape Horn slippers, “There, that’s more water than +I’ve seen on this ship’s poop since I’ve had her.” It was really a +grand spectacle as the sea broke on board, and would have made a superb +subject for a camera.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</span></p> + +<p>We are now in the very heart of the violent river Plate region, being +at noon to-day abreast of that vast estuary, whose mouth is three +degrees in width. The Rio de la Plata, or River of Silver, is, like +Cape Hatteras, the dividing line between two climates: that of the +torrid Brazils and of the cold, bleak pampas of the Argentine and +Patagonia, just as Hatteras is the turning-point, so to speak, in +the climates of our Southern and Middle Atlantic States. They are, +too, about equidistant from the equator. A rather noteworthy fact is +that, bar Cape Horn, the three stormiest localities in the Southern +Hemisphere are almost exactly in the same latitude, though thousands +of miles apart: the river Plate, Cape Agulhas, and Cape Leewin, at the +southwestern end of Australia. Latitude, 36° 55′ south; longitude, 47° +20′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">June 28</span></p> + +<p>By way of variety, light winds were vouchsafed to us for the +twenty-four hours, varying from southwest to northeast, and we made not +fifty miles of southing in that time. Very suddenly last night at nine +o’clock the wind let go at southwest, and instantly came out of the +southeast, backing gradually to northeast, where it is now; but though +a fair wind we are not doing three knots an hour. However, the glass +is falling and a change is no doubt at hand, and the sea has gone down +till nothing remains but a sullen, greasy roll from south-southeast. +We earnestly hope for a strong, fair wind which will give us at least +eight knots, for the skipper’s temper is failing rapidly, and he is +beginning to rage at the weather. Generally, by the fiftieth day from +New York he has crossed the parallel of 50° south, so that in round +numbers we are about seven hundred miles north of his average, this +being our forty-eighth day at sea. It has been noted previously, I +think, that he has never<span class="pagenum" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</span> been more than one hundred and thirty days on +a voyage, and has made eight voyages between New York and San Francisco +in less than one hundred days; his longest passage of the Horn—that +is, from 50° to 50°—was nineteen days; the shortest, eleven. Fine +work, all this, which few ship-masters can equal.</p> + +<p>My wife asked the skipper last evening if he had ever lost a ship. He +said no, but that he had had one or two narrow calls. “One of the worst +cases of smash-up I ever saw,” he continued, “happened to me when I +had the ‘Judas Dawes’ about six years ago. We were well down in the +southeast Trades in the Pacific, bound from ’Frisco to New York; the +weather had been squally, and on this particular day, in about 14° +south, I had specially told the mate not to loose the jib-topsail, +but when I went below after dinner for a nap the beggar did it. When +I went on deck again at four there was a squall makin’ ahead, and I +ordered some hands to stand by the sky-sail-halliards, for I didn’t +know the jib-topsail had been loosed. Well, sir, the squall hit us (it +was a corker) and snapped off the jib-boom; and, as I ran forrad, crack +went the foretop-mast, then the maint’-gallant-mast, and at last over +went the mizzen-t’-gallant-mast. In all my goin’ to sea I never saw +the like of it; ’twas as bad nearly as the ‘May Flint,’ only we had +smooth water. Forrad we were a wreck, with nothing at all above the +foreyard, while alongside was a fearful mass o’ gear slammin’ against +the ship, and you know those Trades in the Pacific blow fresh. Well, we +cleared up the wreck after hard work, sent up a few of the old yards +that weren’t too far gone to fish, made sail, and crossed Sandy Hook +Bar, ninety-eight days from ’Frisco, under a jury-rig.” Captain Scruggs +has as great a reputation for fast passages as any living American +ship-master in the California trade, but we’ll have to have better luck +if we are to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</span> reach port in less than one hundred and thirty days from +New York.</p> + +<p>We are entering that region most celebrated in the world for its +sunsets; it would be interesting to know whether there is anything in +this, or whether it is imagination on the part of captains. At any +rate, we witnessed one this evening finer than any which we have ever +seen before; the sun sinking into the core of a huge, crimson cavern +in the centre of an inky cloud, from behind which shot up scores of +slender, golden arrows toward the zenith, presenting a scene of such +lurid magnificence as to fill the heart with reverence and wonder. And +by that same token, the sun is getting low in the northern sky, his +altitude at meridian being only a little above 30°, or about the same +as at New York towards the end of December.</p> + +<p>The day being chill and raw, with a noon temperature of 52°, a fire was +lighted in the cabin stove for the first time; and as the thermometer +below has stood for a long while at 55° and a dismal drizzle prevailed +all day, the heat and glow of the fire were grateful beyond expression. +Latitude, 37° 42′ south; longitude, 47° 40′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">June 29</span></p> + +<p>From six o’clock yesterday evening till noon to-day we had a breeze +so light that at times the sky-sails flapped idly against the masts, +and for several hours we were becalmed on a motionless sea,—a sea so +wonderfully smooth that, but for the temperature, we might readily +have fancied ourselves in the equatorial Doldrums again. At four +yesterday afternoon a crisp little breeze came whipping along out +of the south (although it lasted only two hours) driving away the +squalls and muggy air, a bright, rosy atmosphere taking their place +at sundown, with a horizon as sharply cut as the edge of a razor. As +for the night<span class="pagenum" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</span> which followed, it was as brittle and sparkling as any +evening in Nova Scotia, wanting only the flashing pennons of the Aurora +Borealis to complete the picture. The firmament glittered with splendid +constellations, the stars dancing and scintillating with the glance +of steel, as though electric sparks, while the Milky Way seemed firm +and solid enough to walk upon. A magnificent sunrise succeeded this +matchless night, and we stood entranced by the glory of the scene for +half an hour, watching the lovely colors shift every few seconds like +the revolutions of a kaleidoscope, changing the tiny, pink, shell-like +clouds into glowing, golden embers as the great orb touched the horizon +and threw a path of crimson fire even to the vessel’s side. Where are +the gales of wind which are supposed to scream incessantly over the +Southern Ocean? Where are the giant seas which sweep the South Atlantic +with their foaming crests? It is not difficult to answer the latter +question, for we will not meet with any of those tremendous rollers +which have made Cape Horn the hobgoblin of navigators till we have +cleared Staten Land and receive the full fury of the thousands of miles +of tempestuous ocean which lie to the south and west of the Horn. It is +true that on our first voyage we experienced very heavy weather when in +this latitude; but then we were bound the other way and were near the +forty-third eastern meridian (about four hundred miles the other side +of Good Hope) at this parallel; the weather, as a general rule, is far +worse farther to the eastward at 40° south than in here near the land, +where bright skies and much smoother seas are the rule rather than the +exception. We are not more than three hundred and fifty miles from +South America now, so that even if we did have a heavy westerly gale +(westerly winds are almost constant south of 30° south) the sea could +not rise to such heights as it does off Agulhas and Cape Horn.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</span></p> + +<p>But these gentle winds we cannot understand; at dinner-time to-day, +though, a nice little breeze came along from the westward, and we are +humming along under the sky-sails, doing well except that we are not +making much westing, as we can’t do better than south by west.</p> + +<p>The captain is like one demented. As MacFoy whispered to me this +afternoon when the jib-topsail-sheet parted, throwing him into a +paroxysm, “If he doesn’t get a fair wind soon he’ll go mad.” In truth, +he has been in a passion all day, chassezing up and down the main-deck +as though he had a devil. Just before the sheet went he had a spasm +of tautening things up, and went braying about with a voice of brass, +driving the men like animals before him; he had just ordered the above +sheet flattened in when crack it went, and in a few seconds the clew of +the sail was in fluttering ribbons, for the wind, though not strong, +whipped away the old canvas as though it were a cobweb. The mate caught +it too when he came out of his cavern at quarter to twelve to take +the sun, and by the time that we sat down to dinner the old man had +worked him into a speechless state, so that throughout the meal he sat +crushed and silent, with a face like a cigar Indian. These repasts on +such occasions are pregnant with gloomy thoughts, stillness reigning +as the skipper fiercely gnaws at his dinner, clicking his teeth, while +the whole top of his head seems to move as he chews, his temples +particularly rotating like the eccentrics of a steam-engine. His head +is quite bald, and his face is embellished with such enormous whiskers +that his whole head looks like an inverted sea-anemone; and when he is +angry, as he was to-day, his black eyes so glitter and snap under such +shaggy brows that they seem about to jump out and annihilate you. After +dinner, which appeared to increase his ill-humor, being a dyspeptic, he +went up to put some new panes of glass into the skylight<span class="pagenum" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</span> which the sea +had broken. He fussed and fumed around with putty, diamond, and chisel +for half an hour, at the end of which time he had one pane nicely +adjusted, when it cracked across one corner. This almost prostrated +him, and when two other cracks appeared in rapid succession, each +calling forth a low, intense “d——,” he simply got up and ran away.</p> + +<p>Then this amiable man commenced on the mate again, who, of course, +began to “bullyrag” the men, and finally brought down young Louis +Eckers to his knees with a hard blow in the face with his fist. This +was due solely to temper, because he had to repeat an order which Louis +didn’t understand on account of his ignorance of English.</p> + +<p>Our first albatross presented himself to view this morning. When you +are making your first long voyage there is generally some confusion at +first, resulting in the more or less similarity between an albatross +and a molly-hawk. The latter are large birds and really look a good +deal like the former; but when you have seen an albatross half a dozen +times, you will never forget his appearance. There is no mistaking that +great beak or the odd hunchback-look of those shoulders, much less the +majestic flight of the stately bird as he skims along close to the +surface of the sea and then rises in a splendid circle on those great +wings of his. Our friend of this morning, however, did not long abide +with us, but, after looking us over, wheeled about and vanished in the +south. A Cape pigeon struck the taffrail this morning and fell on the +poop by the wheel-house. He was a beautiful little creature, with a +snow-white breast, dark-brown wings splashed with white, and a glossy +black head and neck, with a sheen as of satin on the feathers. After +sufficiently admiring the little fellow and showing him to the cat, who +wouldn’t approach within ten feet of him, we hove it overboard, and it +whizzed screaming away to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</span> rejoin its companions, who now follow us in +scores. Latitude, 38° 12′ south; longitude, 49° 35′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">June 30</span></p> + +<p>The bright happy weather of yesterday has given place to a chill, +gloomy day with half a gale from the westward, while the ship under +reefed topsails has been digging into a strong head-sea in quite a +violent manner. How tender and delicate, so to speak, even the best +and largest of wooden vessels really are! For instance, at nine last +evening the second mate said that he thought he would put the gaskets +on the royals, the sky-sails having come in before supper.</p> + +<p>“What on earth do you want to stow the royals for?” said I; “there +certainly is not wind enough for that.”</p> + +<p>“No, it’s not the wind,” he answered, “but this sea’s makin’ ahead, and +she’ll strain goin’ into it with the royals on her.”</p> + +<p>There certainly was a southerly sea running, but the ship was diving +easily, without wrenching or pounding; and it surely was very +surprising that a powerful ship like this would have to shorten sail +for such a swell. “And that’s just the great point in favor of an iron +ship,” said Mr. Rarx; “you can drive her through most anything and not +give her a thought. You know the ‘William J. Rotch’? We opened her all +up forrad a-drivin’ of her into a head-sea beatin’ up the Sea of Japan +trying to find Willywoodstock in a fog.”</p> + +<p>“Where’s that place? It’s new to me,” said I.</p> + +<p>“Siberia,” was his reply; and it was not until some hours afterward +that I grasped his meaning; he intended to say Vladivostok.</p> + +<p>As the night wore on it grew squally, and at three in the morning +the fore- and maintop-sails were reefed, while at<span class="pagenum" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</span> four o’clock the +massive iron hook on the cross-jack-tack carried away, and the sail +was saved only by the prompt and good work of both watches. I awoke in +the midst of the operation, and above the boom of the seas we could +hear the skipper’s hurricane voice shouting, “Haul away on those +buntlines; <i>haul away on those buntlines</i>; <span class="allsmcap">HAUL AWAY ON THOSE +BUNTLINES</span>.”</p> + +<p>At five yesterday afternoon, just before we clewed up the sky-sails, +we sailed through a whole fleet of albatrosses, feeding quietly on +the water. It was the first time that we had seen so many of the big +birds at rest at one time, and they looked very large and dignified as +they rose and sunk upon the swell. To say that we sailed through them +is not strictly correct, though, for when we had approached to within +two hundred yards or so they rose from the surface and went sailing +away into the southwest. It is always interesting to watch them rise +from the water, flapping their immense wings, each two yards long, +and rapidly paddling with feet as large as cabbage leaves to gain an +impetus; when, the wind striking beneath their pinions, they stow their +great feet somewhere in their stern feathers, and with a couple of +powerful strokes of wing away they soar up to windward; and you can +watch an albatross for half an hour at a time thereafter, and not a +single alar movement can be discerned.</p> + +<p>The Scottish bosun entertained me last night for some time in drawing +comparisons between various sailing ships. I asked him how the men +liked it here. “Why, can’t you tell?” said he. “They don’t like it at +all; and I can tell you it’s no child’s play aboard here. Most of the +men, you see, have come out of British ships, where they don’t break +men’s bones with clubs or their hearts with drivin’.”</p> + +<p>“If you like British ships better than ours, what did you sign in this +one for?” I asked.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</span></p> + +<p>“Why did I?” he replied. “Why, for the same reason that lots of others +do,—for the sake o’ the Snug Harbor. Ye see, if any man serves five +years in American ships and can prove it, he can end his days in peace +and comfort in the Sailors’ Snug Harbor on Staten Island, where they +take care of him. But, say, I never see a skipper like this one before. +Has he slept at all since we came to sea? I’m hanged if I think so, for +at all times o’ the night the first thing you know there’s th’ old man +standin’ within two foot of you on the main-deck, like a black spook. +Lord knows how he gets around, <i>I</i> don’t.”</p> + +<p>To-day we attained the highest southern latitude which my wife and I +ever reached, as on our first voyage around the other cape 39° 5′ was +the southernmost point. Having crossed the fortieth parallel, we have +also probably passed without the influence of the river Plate region; +but it is too bad that we are not two hundred miles farther to the +westward. Latitude, 40° 31′ south; longitude, 51° 10′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">July 1</span></p> + +<p>Strong winds from the westward, shifting in the morning watch to +southeast, and a rough sea prevailed up to noon to-day, when it cleared +up, a persistent rain having added its portion to the dreariness of the +weather. At five this morning, when the wind shifted to the southeast, +we wore and stood in shore on the port tack, heeling well over to a +strong breeze. Both wind and sea increased as the morning advanced, +and at nine we had to take some of the sails off the ship. And here +mark the skipper’s perversity: at this particular moment we were in +quite a severe squall, and I shouted to him, “It’s breezing all the +time.” “No, it ain’t,” he replied, harshly; “the wind’s lettin’ go.” +Ten minutes later he ordered the maintop-gallant-sail to be clewed up, +and in another five minutes he ordered<span class="pagenum" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</span> in the spanker. Anything to +differ from me and express an opinion of his own, even if he has to act +against it.</p> + +<p>After these two sails had come in the ship was easier, but the sea +was making very rapidly, and in another hour we were taking large +quantities of water aboard. It was a wild sight then: an immense +squall overhanging us and darkening the heavens and the sea; the ship +enveloped in clouds of whirling spray; the driving rain, whipping us +with the sting of a lash; the crash of a sea now and then against the +forward house; and the flock of sea-birds astern wheeling and diving +through the squall, with a brace of gaunt, gray albatrosses sailing +calmly along, as though this were a tropic zephyr.</p> + +<p>During one of these squalls the carpenter was observed at work on the +weather side of the forecastle-house, dodging the seas as each gave +warning of its approach by a peculiar motion just before it broke +aboard, which one soon learns to know. We were beginning to think +that if he didn’t look sharp he would catch it, when a great mass of +water arose alongside, faltered a moment high up above the rail, and +then, with overwhelming fury, the whole sea thundered aboard. First +it flattened Chips out against the deck-house as though he had been +crucified against it; then it lifted him, mighty man though he is, and +drove him with terrible force against the pumps; while the huge volume +of water, encountering the various obstacles in its mad career about +the deck, shot into the air as high as the mainyard, totally blotting +out the waist of the ship. What saved that carpenter from mortal +hurt is beyond human ken. The mate says that it was his sheathing of +blubber which encases his carcass like that of a seal. At any rate, he +painfully gathered up his clumsy, massive frame and stumbled forward +with both hands on his left leg, which proved to be very badly bruised, +and he complains now of a hard pain in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</span> his chest. This was by far more +water than we have had on board at any one time, and it is difficult to +conceive of the grandeur of such a sea breaking aboard, though it is an +awful sight withal; its power seems resistless, and as it sweeps over +the side with a peculiar, crushing sound, one involuntarily grips the +rail or a belaying-pin with the grasp of a vice.</p> + +<p>When this last squall had passed, lo! a ship to windward, and I was +again the first to sing out “Sail ho.” There is much secret pleasure +for me in this; for, whenever it occurs, the captain always walks over +to Mr. Goggins, who is generally wool-gathering at the break of the +poop, and asks him if there is anything in sight. “Naw, sir, there +hain’t nothin’. Oh, yes, there’s a sail to wind’ard, sir, through the +fog.” “Oh, thanks,” usually answers the skipper ironically, by which +the mate knows that he’s been caught again.</p> + +<p>Visions of the “Dowes” appeared to us as we studied the stranger as +closely as the flying spray and rain would permit, the ship being under +her topsails with the main-sail hauled up. Presently, though, we saw +that she had no sky-sail-yards, proving that she was not our friend; +while her short, thick, pole bowsprit showed that she was doubtless a +metal ship, which belief was later confirmed by painted ports.</p> + +<p>At noon the sun burst through the dense pall of cloud, and an afternoon +of dazzling beauty followed, with the good old “Higgins” surging ahead +over the long, blue, foaming seas, a sky of sapphire overhead, dappled +with a few thin, cirrus clouds and a grand breeze over the beam, giving +us about eight knots on a southwest-half-west course. Just at noon the +other ship, too, presented a splendid appearance. To begin with, she +was a very handsome vessel, and had so altered her position as to be +close astern, a little<span class="pagenum" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</span> on our weather quarter, distant about one-third +of a mile. Her topsails and courses (she had set her main-sail and +cross-jack) were swelled out like great cylinders, while her painted +ports lent her the dignity of an old-time frigate; and she presented +to us a perfect ideal of the poetry of motion as she rolled deeply but +easily, now sinking into a valley to her lower yards, now cleaving the +lofty crest of a breaking sea which veiled her in a storm of spray.</p> + +<p>At half-past one we decided to signal her, and ran up our number, +to which she instantly replied that she was the “La Pallice”; then +we informed her that we were from New York bound to San Francisco, +fifty-one days out, while she proved to be from Hamburg for the same +destination, and was fifty-nine days at sea; after which we dipped our +ensign, which she answered with the tricolor of France.</p> + +<p>We are reading Nansen’s “First Crossing of Greenland” together with +the greatest interest, being one of the most charmingly written of all +stories of Arctic work. What a delightful time we will have with his +“Farthest North”! We have it on board, but I am waiting till we pass +50° south, so that we can read it in a part of the world almost as +rough and desolate as he passed over in his great journey. Latitude, +42° 24′ south; longitude, 52° 36′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">July 2</span></p> + +<p>We had a good breeze from the south all last night and this morning, +which put us off to about west by south; but, as our aim for the past +four or five days has been to make westing rather than southing, this +breeze was most acceptable. The strong wind of yesterday eased up in +the second dog-watch last night, and we carried the top-gallant-sails +without trouble afterward.</p> + +<p>A great change has taken place in the temperature, for<span class="pagenum" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</span> at eight +this morning the thermometer stood at 38° in the air and 47° in the +water,—a fall in thirty-six hours of 15° in the atmosphere and 16° in +the sea. People who have never been exposed for consecutive hours to +a temperature at sea of between 30° and 40° can have no just idea of +how penetratingly cold the wind is when the mercury drops below 40°, +or of how many clothes it is necessary to wear if one wants to stay on +deck a long while without constant motion. For example, I have on now +two suits of heavy underwear, pilot-cloth trousers, a heavy jersey, a +whip-cord waistcoat, a padded leather jacket, and a mackintosh; the +costume is completed with mention of knitted woollen gloves and socks +and leather boots and ditto hat. Now, there are numerous brawny, burly +individuals who will ridicule this mass of apparel, and insist that +one ought to keep moving, which would make it unnecessary. But to +begin with, our promenade is here limited to seventy-five feet instead +of several hundred, as in the case of a transatlantic steamer; and, +besides, I have not that maniac passion for pedestrianism which lays +so fierce a hold on some people the instant that they set foot upon a +vessel’s deck. When I want exercise, half an hour at the pumps, even in +cold weather, is sufficient; and I’ll warrant that it would be enough +for the brawny, burly individuals before noticed. Neither of us came to +sea to stay below, so we pile on sufficient clothes to repel even the +strongest blasts, and can sit comfortably and unruffled for hours on +deck without a break.</p> + +<p>Points in connection with such a voyage as this can be learned only by +experience; our first one gave us all that was necessary, so that we +knew exactly what to bring with us this time. A leather jacket very +thickly lined is almost inconceivably useful, as are a pair of heavy +leather knee-boots, at least one size too large, to allow for woollen +socks.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</span> Such boots well greased will be sufficiently water-tight for +all ordinary purposes, and if they should become water-logged, they +can always be dried at the galley-fire; rubber boots, though, should +never be omitted from the sea wardrobe. The best head-gear is a woollen +cap with ear-flaps, and a sou’wester, of course, for bad weather. As +to oilskins, there is now manufactured a water-proof stuff, which has +proved in this case to be everything that is claimed for it. It is +brown in color, and in texture much like a mackintosh, but harder to +the touch, and is in two pieces,—short jacket and trousers. These +suits have been used in the life-saving service on the Atlantic coast, +and the only objection which the men made to the suits was that the +sand cut the stuff in a high wind, so that in a short time it became +quite porous. At sea, however, I have never found the equal of one +of these suits; and, as a test, I stood for two hours yesterday in +drenching rain and spray in one position, so as to allow the elements +full continuous sweep at one point, and when we went below the inside +of the jacket was not even damp. A long oil-skin coat is extremely +unwieldy at sea, for if it is blowing at all hard the skirts cling to +the legs most aggravatingly, and I have had some hard falls by being +thus tripped. All mates wear long yellow coats, however, and I wondered +why until yesterday, when I asked Mr. Goggins if a short jacket and +pants wouldn’t be more comfortable; but he replied, indignantly, “Wot +do yer think I am, a foremast ’and?” It seemed to me that a mate who +has to wear a long coat to distinguish him from an ordinary sailor must +be like the man who tells another that he himself is a gentleman,—he +must be somewhat in doubt about it.</p> + +<p>It is to be hoped that this treatise on deep-sea garments has not +proved a bore; but after our previous voyage so many persons asked us +what we wore in bad weather in the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</span> Southern Ocean, that the above +explanations may not be out of place. My wife dresses much as she would +for golf,—a short skirt and leather gaiters for clear, cold weather, +with yellow oil-skins when it rains and the spray flies.</p> + +<p>We observed some further fine cloud effects to-day a little after +sunrise, the horizon being smothered at frequent intervals with dense +squalls; and at nine o’clock a ponderous mass of cumulus cloud appeared +in the south, rearing its immense domes nearly to the zenith, like +heaps of yellow wool, for the sun’s reflection changed the color of the +great bank to that of rich cream, while far below, at the base, the +cloud shaded off into a dim, sable mass. “There’s snow in that fellow,” +quoth the skipper, which was certainly true, for ten minutes later we +were swallowed up in a thick snow-squall, which lasted for fifteen +or twenty minutes. Snow seemed to be a singular phenomenon on the +second of July, not to mention the biting cold. Latitude 43° 8′ south; +longitude, 56° 45′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">July 3</span></p> + +<p>This morning broke with a clear sky and little or no wind, and when the +sun came up fine and rosy, he looked over the rim of the horizon across +an azure sea just crinkled by a faint westerly breeze. Light as it was, +though, there was a biting sting in it which, before breakfast, set +the teeth chattering and raised one’s knuckles into big gristly knobs. +The broad sweep of the South Atlantic was well-nigh motionless, for it +was only at considerable intervals that a slight swell came sighing up +from the Antarctic, and the sea was as calm as off Newport in August. +Clothes suspended against the walls hung without motion, and we might +well have fancied ourselves in Long Island Sound; as for the day, it +was cloudless save for an occasional snow flurry, which lasted only a +few minutes. This clear, cold,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</span> merry weather at sea is indescribably +charming, though, no doubt, the men would tell a different tale, for +Olsen and Jacquin, who were mending an old fine-weather royal on the +cabin-house this morning, had to knock off work now and then to beat +some feeling into their stiffened fingers before they could drive the +needles through the canvas.</p> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp90" id="i_052a" style="max-width: 146.5625em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/i_052a.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption class="caption"><p>Mending sails in fine weather</p></figcaption> +</figure> + +<p>As we draw nearer and nearer to Cape Horn the men are daily growing +very anxious to know the ship’s position, and as I am, of course, the +only individual on board who will gratify their curiosity, they often +ask me several times a day. Frequently, on the main-deck, a man will +ask what the position is in a very low tone, after a careful scrutiny +round about to see that none of the after-guard is hard by. Sometimes, +as I pass by the wheel-house, I am assailed in a raven’s whisper with, +“Say, mister, what’s the latitood?” and their pleasure at being told +is quite child-like. A passenger on a sailing ship, by the way, is +seldom, if ever, called by his name; he is simply “mister.” Of course, +in a general way, sailors often get an idea of the approach of land +from the discoloration of the water, the increase in the number of +vessels sighted, and the presence of land-birds; but the average sailor +probably couldn’t tell within much less than a thousand miles of where +he is on a voyage like this. Even a second mate is generally very much +in the dark on this subject, for he is never a navigator on American +ships, as he ought to be, and keeps no reckoning. We have often seen +Mr. Rarx go up to the mate and hint in various ways that he would like +to know the ship’s position at noon. The mate sometimes tells him; but +Mr. Rarx is too good a seaman to stand well with such a man as the +mate, who does not know very much more of that art than some of the +sailors. Besides, it <i>might</i> get to the men through one of the +bosuns, which would be truly horrible and unspeakable; therefore,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</span> +unless there is a passenger aboard, sailors live in almost blank +ignorance of their whereabouts throughout a four or five months’ voyage.</p> + +<p>The bosun of the port-watch, big MacFoy, has been limping badly for +several days, his left foot being so severely mashed and swollen that +he cannot bear even a loose rubber boot on it. This is the result of a +sea which fell upon him one night at the weather forebraces. It slung +him across the deck and jammed his foot against a fife-rail stanchion, +but luckily broke no bones. I have promised to give him a glass of grog +to-morrow, the Fourth of July, but exceeding caution will have to be +exercised lest I be apprehended by the powers.</p> + +<p>Yesterday the main-spencer was rigged, and as this is a heavy-weather +sail, a description of it may prove of interest. It is otherwise known +as a storm-try-sail, and, being a fore-and aft-sail, is set on the +main lower mast. A number of stout screw-eyes were driven into the +mast, extending from a point about eight feet above the deck to an +iron band three feet below the top; through these eyes an iron rod +was inserted, and to this rod the sail was laced. A standing-gaff was +then rigged, furnished with hoops, to which the head of the sail was +bent, the method of setting being by hauling it out on the gaff, like +the fore- and aft-sails on steamers. It is forty-four feet long on the +luff and twenty-two on the gaff, and is, of course, of No. 0 duck, with +a bolt-rope nearly as big as the fore-tack. The spencer is what is +known as a steadying sail in bad weather, and is usually set after the +courses have all been hauled up and the ship is head-reaching under the +lower topsails, or when the ship is regularly hove to.</p> + +<p>There was a very turbulent scene enacted while the sail was being bent. +The mate was aloft, swinging over the rim of the top in a bowline, +trying to fit the end of the gaff<span class="pagenum" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</span> into a gooseneck, both man and spar +flying wildly about as the ship rolled. Two vangs led down from the +gaff-end to the deck, one on either side, while a man on each, trying +to hold it steady, was jerked about like the tail of a kite. The mate +was already in a passion, for no sooner would he have the end nearly +in the socket than away it would fly, while he himself brought to with +a thump against the futtock-shrouds. At this juncture Captain Scruggs +appeared with his sextant. It was the signal for chaos. Everything +almost immediately was plunged into inextricable confusion. Something +had manifestly gone wrong with the old man below, for he was bristling +when he laid down his instrument on the deck-house and walked with +foreboding leisure to the break of the poop. You could see that he +was seething within himself; but for some time he appeared totally +unconscious of the mate, the spencer, and everything else; but when +the gaff drew off and smote the taut weather-shrouds with the force +of a steam-hammer, he thought it was time to take a hand. Did the +mate give an order he would instantly countermand it, sandwiching +in sarcastic remarks, such as, “Ah, that’s beautiful! You’d make a +master-rigger, you would. Think you’ll git that in by dark? I could +put the whole main-mast in while you’re scratchin’ away up there.” At +these pleasantries old Goggins fairly snarled and bared his teeth in +devilish grins, but kept silent. At last, seeing a chance, he bawled +to the man below who was surging up on the rope, “Lower away smart, +now.” “Hoist away, there,” immediately cried the skipper. Behold the +fatal straw on the dromedary. “’Ow in the name o’ G—— am Hi to do +this, Cap’n Scruggs, if you don’t let me alone?” And then they went +at it like Kilkenny cats, so that the air quivered with blasphemous +discharges. It was quite astonishing to hear the mate answer back with +such intrepid vehemence,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</span> and they kept it up so long that the captain +lost his sight; for when he removed his sextant the sun was falling, +which didn’t add very much to the geniality of his temper. Scenes of +this sort are heralded with the most intense joy by the men, who turn +their heads away to hide faces which actually glisten with delight. +Latitude, 43° 13′ south; longitude, 58° 24′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">July 4</span></p> + +<p>We celebrated Independence Day not with pyrotechnical demonstrations, +but with a remarkable barometric performance: it fell seven-tenths of +an inch in ten hours, from 30.40 to 29.70, and this with an ugly look +to windward. The breeze began to freshen late yesterday afternoon, +and at five o’clock in came the fore- and mizzen-royals. At table, +the various utensils suddenly began to jump about, which was very +astonishing, inasmuch as the sea was almost perfectly quiet half an +hour earlier. The breeze kept on making, and when we came up from +supper, at six o’clock, the captain ordered the main-royal- and +mizzen-top-gallant-sail clewed up. At this time the ship was diving +heavily, and it was time to take the fore- and maintop-gallants off +her, too; the skipper had just concluded to furl them, when, with +a great weltering plunge, the ship pushed her lofty flaring bows +completely under a coaming sea, and then instantly rearing back, the +enormous mass of water was projected with terrific force against the +forward end of the forecastle-house. It smashed the lee door like +cardboard, though it was three inches thick, and then washed aft like a +Hooghly bore, absolutely filling the lee decks to the rail with solid +water,—that is, it was six feet deep in the scuppers, and it seemed +incredible that any bulwarks could withstand the strain; yet the water +ran off in a few minutes, leaving no further trace of its power than a +snarled<span class="pagenum" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</span> mass of running gear which had been lifted off the pins. Good +luck that the lookout had just been ordered to the top of the house +instead of the forecastle-head, or there wouldn’t have been much of him +left after that sea had struck him.</p> + +<p>The forecastle, though, was a spectacle indeed. Its doors open forward, +which no sailor likes; and when the big sea came from dead ahead and +stove the lee door, the water poured into the house in thousands of +gallons. It stood a foot deep on the floor, and shot up violently to +the carlines at every roll, washing the men’s bedding out of even the +topmost bunks (they are always built in three tiers, one above the +other), while their chests went banging about in the deep water, the +majority of them burst open, and others broken all to pieces. The sills +of the doors on all ships opening on the main-deck are usually about +eighteen inches high, to prevent the entrance of water, if possible; +but if, as in this case, a great quantity find its way into the +forecastle, these very sills prevent its egress. To be sure, there are +leaders which are supposed to draw the water off, but they are so small +that more than an hour passed before all the brine had disappeared. How +sorrowful and helpless the poor fellows looked as they surveyed their +drenched clothes and broken chests! and, worse than all, the dank, +soaked forecastle. It means more suffering and privation than landsmen +have any idea of, for the men will have to sleep in soggy, clammy, +mildewed bunks for at least a month. No forecastle ever dries off Cape +Horn, on account of the intense humidity of that region; and even if +the forecastle has a stove in it, it doesn’t dry things out, but calls +forth instead a rank steam from the reeking walls, which pervades the +room like a foul mist.</p> + +<p>All this time the glass had been falling, and we looked for bad +weather; the captain had the main-sail hauled up, and in every way +stood by for a heavy blow. But we<span class="pagenum" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</span> worked out a false reckoning, for +the wind shortly afterward let go more than half, while the aneroid +rose to 29.85, where it is now. Since six o’clock this morning we have +been about six points off our course, with the wind at south-southwest; +therefore the captain once more wrapped himself in his mantle of wrath, +and throughout dinner kept mumbling continuously to himself concerning +the probability of there being a Jonah on board. This was not the first +time that he has hinted at such things, and, though we knew well that +he meant us, I didn’t say anything, but let him growl on. It is almost +impossible to conceive how unpleasant it is to be considered a Jonah +aboard ship; it is easy to say, “What’s the use of paying any attention +to it?” But you can’t help heeding it, though it is only superstition, +and the eyes of every one on board aft seem to say, “Look at the +Jonah.” Foremast hands do not care how long they are at sea if they get +decent food and even passably good treatment; indeed, the saying among +them is, “More days, more dollars.” Still, in spite of everything we +are reminded of that dismal verse in the “Ancient Mariner,”—</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“One by one, by the star-dogged moon,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Too quick for groan or sigh,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Each turned his face with a ghastly pang</div> + <div class="verse indent2">And cursed me with his eye.”</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>There is another cause, however, for the skipper’s bad temper; +yesterday we slaughtered our first pig, and at all three meals to-day +we had fresh pork. Captain Scruggs caused prodigious quantities of it +to disappear and has been in anguish ever since. Indeed, it is hard +to imagine anything edible which will so upset one’s digestion as +fresh pork at sea; it is bad enough ashore, where plenty of exercise +is to be had, but aboard ship one hearty meal of pork freshly killed +will cause an incredible amount of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</span> distress. The skipper instanced +an illustration of how difficult it is to digest at sea: on the last +outward voyage he killed a pig just before he reached San Francisco, +and, the weather being too warm to keep the meat sweet, most of it was +given to the sailors. Now, these men can digest sour, soggy bread and +salt beef like ironwood, yet this fresh pork vanquished them, and five +men were actually laid up in their bunks at the end of the second day.</p> + +<p>Had many severe hail-squalls during the last twenty-four hours, but +fine weather otherwise, sharp and clear. Latitude, 44° 41′ south; +longitude, 59° 58′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">July 5</span></p> + +<p>Very light southerly airs and a calm sea have added vastly to our +surprise at such weather off Patagonia. How remarkable it is to find +these gentle, variable winds here, when the popular notion of this +region is a continuous westerly gale! Findlay’s “South Atlantic +Directory,” however, indicates generally fine weather from 40° to +50° south <i>near the land</i>, and this has been our skipper’s +almost invariable experience, except that the wind ought to be to the +northward instead of to the southward of west; at the present moment, +though, the breeze shows signs of hauling to the northward with the +sun, instead of against, so perhaps it will stop there for a while. The +wind has been so light and contrary for the twenty-four hours, that in +that period we made only eight miles of latitude and seven of longitude!</p> + +<p>My wife and I have finished reading Nansen’s “First Crossing of +Greenland,” and during its perusal we learned some remarkable facts. +For instance, it is strange how the body craves fat or grease of any +sort when deprived of it for a long while; and it is also very odd to +read that a lump of butter eaten alone slakes the thirst of men in +the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</span> Arctic regions! I wonder why Nansen doesn’t undertake the ascent +of Mount Everest? It seems to me that he, with all his strength and +vitality, would be peculiarly well fitted for such an expedition, not +to mention his being a man of science. How much interest the writings +of Sir Joseph Hooker would lack if that great mountaineer had not been +a scientist! The amount of risk to Nansen, too, in comparison with an +Arctic voyage, would be very small; while the glory of being the first +to stand upon the topmost pinnacle of the earth’s surface could be +dwarfed only by the attainment of the Pole itself. I have loaned the +second mate the Greenland book, as Mr. Rarx is deeply interested in +such work, and is desirous of joining an expedition to the North Pole. +He fears not being able to pass the physical tests necessary before +becoming a member of the crew, but as he has considerable knowledge of +the Peary Greenland expedition, it is my notion that he tried to join +it, but was rejected; and as he laid stress on the fact that no one +would be taken who had any old scars on his person, it is not unlikely +that he was barred for this reason. Considering his lean, powerful +frame, he ought to be well able to endure hardships.</p> + +<p>Looking at the spencer, which is, of course, brailed up in such light +weather, Mr. Rarx said, “Oh, those are great sails! Wait till it’s +blowin’ and she under that and the topsails! They’ll stand a power +o’ wind, but I’ve seen ’em blown away. I was second mate of a Nova +Scotia ship, the ‘Mary L. Burrill,’ a few years ago, and we were bound +across this time from Greenock to St. John in February, which it isn’t +necessary for me to say anything more about the weather. We’d be’n +lyin’ to for twenty hours under a goose-winged maintop-sail and spencer +when the wind all at once rose to a perfect hurricane and hove us down +to the hatches. And then the maintop-sail and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</span> that there spencer, +sir, nearly as hard and thick as a plank, flew away like a muslin +handkercheef; and though we had double gaskets on all the sails, four +of ’em was blown loose and ripped off the yards like paper. Now, it’s +blowin’ pretty hard when a lower maintop-sail goes, but nothin’ short +of a hurricane can budge a new spencer. But no canvas ever made will +stand a North Atlantic midwinter gale, and you hear me. We sighted a +big White Star freighter this day, and she afterward reported the wind +eighty miles an hour <i>between</i> the squalls; not in ’em, mind. And +if you want to see somethin’ to put joy in your heart, you ought to see +these big White Star steamers in a heavy gale! I saw the ‘Cufic’ once +comin’ across in another cyclone in the ‘J. B. Walker,’ and the way she +kept clear of the seas was a caution. I’m a good enough American, but +you can’t beat Harland and Wolff very much.”</p> + +<p>Mr. Rarx is an infinitely more agreeable man to talk to than the mate, +who is the longest-winded and most tiresome old porpoise who ever +spun a yarn. His only recommendations are his hideousness, which is +positively attractive, and his strange, absurd facial contortions when +he doesn’t intend to be funny. Sometimes during the first watch, when +it is very dark, with the exception of the binnacle lamp which casts +its rays upon him as he crosses its path, he is actually weird-looking. +His voice, too, is as husky as a rusty hinge now, owing to a severe +cold, and last night he vented some curious statements. Neither of us +had said a word for maybe five minutes, I watching the compass card, he +grinning and mouthing to himself in the moonlight. Presently he wormed +himself over to where I stood, looked earnestly at me a few seconds and +croaked,—</p> + +<p>“You’ll see plenty of people in California with no teeth.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</span></p> + +<p>“How is that?” said I.</p> + +<p>“Dunno,” he replied; “they do say it’s the climate; anyhow, you’ll see +lots with nothin’ but gums.”</p> + +<p>Then he crawled back to the other side, performed some further silent, +facial acrobatics, returned, and wheezed out mysteriously, “You’ll be +bothered with fleas there; they’re that plenty I always has a regular +quadrille with ’em.”</p> + +<p>A remarkable habit the captain has at table of asking the mate if he +won’t have some of everything in sight; no matter how many dishes +there may be on the board, the skipper always gazes fiercely at him +for a moment, and then says rapidly and severely, “Have some of the +salt meat, Mr. Goggins? Have some beans? Have some potatoes? Have some +bread? Have some sparrow-grass?” All this in one breath, to which the +mate answers, “A leetle, if you please, sir;” or if it’s a second +asking, which is merely form, he replies with his droning, “No-o-o, +sir, I thank you, sir; I’ve ’ad sufficient, sir, I thank you, sir,” as +though to show how he is depriving himself, for he insists that it is +vulgar to enjoy eating!</p> + +<p>Sometimes the old creature corners my wife and me and entertains +us with anecdotes of his acquaintances in San Francisco and how +excessively numerous his influential friends are there. He will tell +us that ’Arry Dolan is now getting seventy-five dollars a month at +the Union Iron Works; and when we venture the opinion that he must be +a rising young man, he answers, “Oh, ’Arry’s all right. Why, I knew +him w’en he was gettin’ only three dollars a week at the Works.” Here +generally follows a genealogical history of the Dolans for several +generations, while their individual characteristics become the subject +of minute discussion.</p> + +<p>Well, we’re beating slowly, slowly, down the inhospitable shores of +Patagonia, and our luck doesn’t seem to be<span class="pagenum" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</span> much better than it was in +the southeast Trades. Latitude, 44° 49′ south; longitude, 60° 5′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">July 6</span></p> + +<p>If our nautical instruments had not assured us that we were at noon in +about 45° south, distant one hundred and twenty-five miles from Cape +Dos Bahios, we might easily have imagined the ship to be lying off +Staten Island in New York Harbor. We never but once before saw the sea +so free from swell, and that was in the Indian Ocean, thirty-four miles +south of the equator; which position we not only held for twenty-four +hours, but during that entire period no one perceived the least +motion in the ship. It is true that to-day we made nearly one hundred +miles; but from eight till eleven this forenoon we were motionless +on the water, while a stage was slung over the stern a foot from the +surface, on which the mate and the carpenter worked for two hours on +the rudder-head; it is only once or twice during an entire voyage that +a vessel for hours at a time will not rise and fall twelve inches. To +us it is really a remarkable experience to thus float silently along +within three hundred and fifty miles of the Falklands, though the +skipper says, “Well, I told you we’d have light weather north of 50°.”</p> + +<p>At noon to-day, however, the western sky indicated a breeze, and +presently a little breath stole ever so gently over the quiet ocean, +scarcely curling the smooth, level plane of the sea; and, gradually +freshening, the ship gathered steerage way in five minutes or so and +began to lazily move ahead through a large flock of Cape pigeons which +had settled to feed in great numbers during the calm, though we could +perceive nothing edible in the water. The birds seemed to delight in +the breeze as much as we did, for in light weather they seldom rise +higher than a few feet above<span class="pagenum" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</span> the surface, lacking the force of wind +which enables them to rise easily; as in a strong breeze they make no +further effort than to guide themselves, rising and falling without +movement of wing. A huge, hoary albatross, a perfect old patriarch, has +been with us all day, skimming over the water so closely as to touch it +occasionally with his breast, and seldom more than a foot from it. It +is wonderful that they can maintain so close and uniform a flight to +the surface, without movement and in a calm.</p> + +<p>The day before yesterday, being more exasperated than ever before at +the skipper’s continuous grumbling at the weather, I told him that I +thought that he asked altogether too much in demanding a fair wind all +the time, and that when a man began a voyage he ought to expect more or +less head-winds throughout the passage, for they were to be expected +anywhere and at any minute at sea during a whole voyage, even in the +Trades. Since then he hasn’t said a word against the weather, and is, +for him, extremely agreeable. Heavens, how hairy he is! So thickly +covered is his whole face that the only visible bare spots are his nose +and eyes; for his beard grows right up over his cheek-bones, and his +eyebrows seem to be spreading all over his forehead. So dense are his +whiskers that when he comes on deck after a session with his Dutch pipe +the smoke can still be seen eddying and seething in his beard.</p> + +<p>Last evening as we were reading some of Kipling’s delightful sea-poems +the skipper called down and asked whether we wouldn’t like to see a +lunar rainbow. We went on deck at once, and there, sure enough, was a +perfect specimen of this strange phenomenon, and so clearly defined +that the brighter colors were distinctly visible. We had seen but one +lunar rainbow before, and that was a very faint one in the Bay of +Bengal, about one hundred miles from the Sandheads.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</span></p> + +<p>It is a curious fact that, like captains, there are comparatively few +foremast hands who remain perfectly strong and well throughout a long +passage. At least eight of ours are looking quite seedy, some with bad +colds, others with various disorders of liver and stomach, so that they +have to be doctored and fixed up with an assortment of medicines. The +way that five-grain blue-mass pills fly around on a deep-water ship is +a caution; one would think they were peppermint drops. Latitude 45° 20′ +south; longitude 62° 10′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">July 7</span></p> + +<p>What a change can be wrought at sea in a few hours! At eleven yesterday +morning we were motionless upon a glassy sea; eight hours later we were +rushing southward under the topsails before a moderate gale!</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“And now the storm-blast came, and he</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Was tyrannous and strong;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">He struck with his o’ertaking wings,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">And chased us south along.”</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>Throughout yesterday afternoon the breeze steadily freshened, and +by four o’clock the sky-sails had been stowed, followed at five by +the royals, while after supper the gaskets were put on the three +top-gallant-sails and the cross-jack was hauled up; the ship logging +exactly twelve knots between six and seven o’clock, the best which we +have done yet, the wind being true and steady from west-northwest, +a little abaft the beam. I have seldom seen a finer sight than that +presented by the ship as she went bounding away south by west before +this grand breeze blowing straight off the pampas of Patagonia; the +moon, now at first quarter, casting a broad wake of silver radiance +over the short, steep, foaming seas which had arisen as though by +magic, and were already snarling and showing<span class="pagenum" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</span> their teeth up above the +weather-quarter. By ten o’clock the spray had begun to bury the waist +of the ship once more, while at intervals during the night a deep, +heavy boom told us that something beside mere spray was tumbling over +the weather-side.</p> + +<p>When we went on deck this morning there was no diminution in the wind, +though it had shifted into the west; but as the captain had kept off +to south, it was still on the beam. The maintop-mast-stay-sail had +been set, and we found the watch in the act of hauling out the spencer +on the gaff, and we presently had an opportunity of seeing this piece +of canvas in actual use for the first time. Its cut was excellent, +and, together with the stay-sail, steadied the ship wonderfully. The +main-sail was reefed, so that the arch of this great sail, which +curved over the ship like the crescent of the moon, was fully thirty +feet above the deck. Although still carrying the six topsails and the +foresail, we were not taking anything but huge volumes of spray aboard, +in spite of the fact that the surface of the ocean to windward showed +long, parallel streaks of foam, like the cross-section of a rasher of +bacon,—an appearance observed only when it is really blowing hard.</p> + +<p>When one has been accustomed to the heavy, rigid main-sails of yachts, +a ship’s canvas in comparison (bar the spencer) appears to be, and +really is, singularly thin and limp. Even a brand-new foresail or +main-sail of a square-rigger cannot at all approach in thickness or +rigidity a yacht’s canvas; and it could not for a moment withstand +the strain to which the latter’s main-sail is subjected while being +stretched on the boom and gaff, not to mention the “sweating” up of +the sails with the jigs. As for a ship’s upper canvas, it has always +seemed to me too light, and I shall never forget my first acquaintance +with square-sails at close quarters. It was at Nassau. Walking one day +through a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</span> sponge-yard, I saw stretched on the ground great squares +of smoky, hempen canvas; and on feeling the various pieces, which +were the topsails of a vessel that had struck and gone to pieces on +Memory Rock, one hundred and fifty miles northwest of New Providence, +I remember thinking that it wasn’t at all surprising that the sails +of ships blew away if this was what they were made of. At any rate, +I put this vessel down as an old worn-out lumberman, fit for nothing +but carrying railway ties from Brunswick or Pensacola to New York. As +a matter of truth, these sails belonged to a fine British ship, the +“Blair Drummond”; and experience has since shown that her canvas was +neither better nor worse than the average, though hempen sails never +feel as thick or stout as those made of cotton-duck, which our ships +use. The advantages claimed for hemp are that it lasts longer, and that +sails made thereof are easier to handle than if made of cotton-duck, +but they do not present nearly so fine an appearance even when new. If +a ship’s canvas were made entirely of No. 0, or even of No. 1, duck, +it would be next to impossible to furl them in a hard blow. As it is, +with the soft, pliable duck and hemp, the blood often starts from the +men’s finger-ends from trying to gather in the bunt of the sail, which +bellies out like sheet-iron when the halliards have been let go. It was +only this morning that the mate told me that once, about thirty years +ago, when a foremast hand in the North Atlantic trade, he was one of +thirty men on the maintop-sail-yard (single) of the ship “Southampton,” +trying to put the third reef in the sail during a January gale. “And, +sir,” said he, “we could <i>not</i> have tied the reef in that sail +if the ship had been sinkin’ under us, and that with a man for every +reef-point.” It is also surprising how neatly and compactly this thin +canvas can be furled on a yard. From the deck hardly anything at all +can be seen<span class="pagenum" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</span> on the royal- and sky-sail-yards; while even the upper +topsails when in the gaskets are not anything like as bulky or hummocky +as the most fastidiously furled yacht’s main-sail.</p> + +<p>I forgot to say that I gave David, the Scot, a drink on July Fourth. He +had been throwing out clumsy hints for one on that day, so I filled a +four-ounce bottle with Glenlivet and took it to him while he was eating +his dinner in his tiny, water-logged cavern forward of the galley. The +radiance reflected from his countenance upon the walls as he sighted +the grog fairly lit up the gloomy den, and when he had downed the +fiery liquid perfectly raw, he put down the bottle and delivered the +following oration, his superb figure raised to its supreme height: +“Wherever ye may go in this world, sir, may good luck go with ye, hand +in hand; may it not be many years till ye get command of a ship and +the finest one under the flag; I thank ye for the best drink that ever +passed me lips.” I was quite taken aback by his earnestness and the +depth of feeling with which he uttered these words in the broadest of +brogue so pleasant to the ear; and when he hoped that I would soon +command a ship, he was wishing me to hold the most exalted position +which the mind of a seaman can conceive.</p> + +<p>By the look of the aneroid we are close to some dirt, as sailors say, +for now at 3 <span class="allsmcap">P. M.</span> the glass stands at 29.08, a fall of an +inch in twenty hours; the sky, too, has a hard look, the sun at noon +being unable to pierce the gloom, but shining hazy and dim, like a +gas-jet behind frosted glass. The altitude at noon now is only 20°, and +the sun’s rays are devoid of heat and almost of cheer. Last evening, +though, we witnessed another one of those rare and radiant Patagonian +sunsets. Every one who has looked at the illustrations in Nansen’s +“Farthest North” will call to mind some strange, impossible-looking +purple and crimson stratus clouds of the most violent hues. Well, +we have<span class="pagenum" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</span> actually seen one of these singular and extremely gorgeous +skies, unnatural almost in its transcendent beauty. Nansen has caught +perfectly the more delicate tints as well as the most flaming colors.</p> + +<p>We did fine work to-day, and in the twenty-four hours logged two +hundred and forty miles. Latitude, 48° 45′ south; longitude, 65° 5′ +west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">July 8</span></p> + +<p>At some time during the morning watch we crossed the fiftieth parallel +of south latitude, and have, therefore, now commenced the passage of +Cape Horn, the stormiest headland in the world, at the worst possible +season,—in the heart of the Antarctic winter. When a vessel is between +50° south in the Atlantic and 50° south in the Pacific she is said to +be making the passage of the Horn, and is off the Cape when she is +anywhere between those parallels; it matters not how far south she may +be blown, she is “off” Cape Horn from 50° to 50°. I think that I have +somewhere before said that an average passage would be about twenty +days, though the bad luck of some men is astonishing. On her last +westward voyage, for instance, the American ship “M. P. Grace” was more +than six weeks off the Cape,—forty-five days, to be precise.</p> + +<p>Late yesterday afternoon the westerly winds which we have carried for +two days began to weaken, and at seven last evening had eased down to +a gentle breeze. Still, a wind which will drive a vessel three hundred +miles in thirty hours in this part of the world and allow her to lay +her course at the same time is not to be lightly spoken of, and we are +all in a happy frame of mind.</p> + +<p>When the wind had almost let go, however, it began to edge stealthily +to the southward, and at 8.30 was at southwest, the dreaded point, +blowing in unsteady jerks. We<span class="pagenum" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</span> had nothing above the topsails on the +ship, though she could easily have carried the royals, but there was +no use in piling on the canvas with the look that there was in the +southern sky. When the glass stands at 29.00 bad weather must be +expected; and when the captain left the deck at 8.45, the moon was +peering dimly through a gray, thin squall, bleared and sickly; the sea +was coming up from various points in short, convulsive, oily heaves and +a frowning rampart of dark cloud was rising in the south. “I’m going +below now for a wink,” said the skipper to Mr. Rarx, on watch; “keep +your eye open, for when it comes it’ll be sharp work.”</p> + +<p>He had been down half an hour when, as the second mate and I stood +watching the cloud approach nearer, an angry, white glare now below +it, suddenly, without a second’s warning, like a blast from a cannon, +the wind fell upon us, laying the ship far over, although the spars +were almost naked. In a few moments Captain Scruggs rose out of the +companion-way and stood for an instant, considering the best move; I +have never yet seen him act without thinking, and it doesn’t take him +long to decide. “Shall we double-reef ’em, sir?” said Mr. Rarx, meaning +the upper topsails. “No, sir,” replied the captain; “let the yards run +down and then tie up the sails; call the port watch, sir; all hands +shorten sail.” “Ay, ay, sir,” heartily; and the next moment the second +mate swung himself down the weather-poop-ladder, stopped for a second +to rap on the mate’s door, and then disappeared forward in the wet and +gloom, while we could hear his clear, strong voice crying out above the +howling wind, “All h-a-n-d-s, shorten s-a-i-l.”</p> + +<p>And now what an inspiring scene is enacted as the big ship plunges +forward, now on an upright keel, now heeled far down to leeward by the +fierce puffs which shriek through<span class="pagenum" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</span> the rigging with a din which is +absolutely infernal. Standing by the weather-quarter-bitts looms up the +burly form of Captain Scruggs, whose keen, vigilant eye takes in every +detail of the ship and the weather; while the gaunt, motionless face of +the helmsman can be seen through the wheel-house windows, illumined by +the glow from the binnacle light. In another moment a dull, rumbling +sound is heard forward: it is the upper foretop-sail-yard running down, +and then the dim figures of fifteen or sixteen yellow-clad sailors can +be perceived as they jump into the rigging and claw out along the yard +to windward and to leeward, utterly unmindful of the pelting rain which +stings their faces, or the quick, tremendous rolls which one would +think must whip them off into the sea. Oh, bold and valiant seamen, +toiling so well and so silently up there in the gale and darkness, +truly, ye are the bravest and the least rewarded of men!</p> + +<p>In another hour the ship was under the shortest canvas thus far,—lower +topsail, foresail, reefed main-sail, and spencer,—bending over to the +blast, the wind now rushing through the shrouds with that grand, deep +hum like the whirr of powerful machinery.</p> + +<p>Throughout the night we kept ploughing ahead through an ever-increasing +sea, with showers of buckshot hail rattling overhead like storms of +bullets, varied now and then with heavy dashes of spray against the +cabin-house.</p> + +<p>At eight this morning, though, the wind had so moderated that we +set the upper topsails, the ship wallowing continuously in a big +head-sea which had made during the night. At noon, though, it began +to breeze up once more, and at one o’clock the cry rang through the +ship, “All hands, reef the maintop-sail.” Again the men trotted up +the weather-rigging and turned in a double reef in less than twenty +minutes; not bad for a merchantman. It is curious<span class="pagenum" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</span> to see the delight +with which an order to shorten sail is invariably received by a ship’s +company on the approach of heavy weather. No matter what their humor at +the moment may be, they always seem actually pleased when the expected +order comes from the after-guard; and, with eager glances over their +shoulders at the approaching squall, they leap into the shrouds and +race aloft to see who shall be the first over the rim of the top.</p> + +<p>For the first time we, to-day, had stocking-leg duff for dinner. It +consists usually of a quantity of stewed dried apples wrapped up in +a roll of dough and boiled in a piece of cheese-cloth. It is by no +means a bad substitute for apple-dumpling, and with good sauce is +always hailed at sea with extravagant joy. The name originated in the +forecastle, where the duff is always boiled in the leg of a stocking. +Latitude, 50° 48′ south; longitude, 64° 34′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">July 9</span></p> + +<p>At twelve o’clock last night it began to blow hard from west-northwest, +and we went on deck this morning to find a fresh gale from that +quarter, with a surprisingly heavy sea, considering the proximity of +the land, for the weather-shore was not more than sixty or seventy +miles away. The ship was under the lower topsails, foresail, reefed +main-sail, and spencer, going well and easily, a couple of points free, +heading into the land for smoother water. Gracious, how the wind yelled +around us this forenoon, drenching the ship fore and aft with the tops +of the foaming seas, which the gale whipped like the blowing of froth +from a vat of beer! In the severest puffs the wind certainly rose to +force 10; and on one occasion, when sliding down the weather-side of a +sea, being simultaneously struck by a heavy blast, we dipped the lee +poop-rail into the sea. At breakfast the skipper said, “There was sharp +lightning in the sou’west<span class="pagenum" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</span> this morning, early, and when you see this +off Cape Horn, look out for bad weather and snug her down.” I should +think so, with the barometer at 28.98.</p> + +<p>A new bird has made its appearance. It is of a light slate color, looks +and flies like a Mother Carey’s chicken, and is familiarly called by +sailors the Ice Bird, being supposed to exist chiefly in the vicinity +of ice. They are very cheerful little creatures, though, and being +small and light, were whisked about by the gale like scraps of paper.</p> + +<p>We are just abreast now of the damp, dreary Falkland Islands, which, +if I mistake not, form the southernmost of all of Great Britain’s +colonies; she may possess islands which are farther south than these, +but they are not strictly colonies. The group comprises some two +hundred islands, though there are only two of any importance,—East +and West Falkland. The area of the former is three thousand square +miles, being considerably larger than Rhode Island, and contains the +most important settlement, Stanley, a town of one thousand inhabitants. +The climate of the Falklands is extremely healthy and equable, the +average temperature for the two midwinter months being 37°, that of +the two midsummer ones 47°; and although in the corresponding latitude +and the precise longitude of the southern part of Labrador, ice seldom +forms of sufficient thickness to allow skating. The weather, however, +is excessively damp. But, though there are generally two hundred and +fifty wet days in the year, the total annual precipitation is but +twenty inches, or one-half that of New York; the greater portion of the +moisture descending in the form of fogs and dense drizzles. More than +fifty vessels a year call at Stanley Harbor, and being so close to Cape +Horn, in the vicinity of which more ships are damaged by the elements +than in any other region in the world, it is natural<span class="pagenum" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</span> that a ship-yard +and chandlery for the repair of sailing ships should pay extremely +well. But, say the deep-water skippers, woe to the vessel which falls +into the clutches of Stanley Harbor; it is almost impossible to escape +in less than six months, and the most exorbitant prices are asked for +absolutely necessary things. The last vessel of any size which put into +Stanley for extensive repairs was the British ship “Pass of Balmaha,” +which was detained there for nearly a year. It is stated that the +ship-yard, etc., pays forty per cent. on the investment.</p> + +<p>At one o’clock this morning we passed Cape Virgins at the Atlantic +entrance to the Straits of Magellan, distant about seventy-five miles, +and at eleven this morning Mr. Rarx saw the land on the weather-bow, +and presently the lonely, barren shores of Tierra del Fuego rose +faintly out of the sea and appeared also on the port bow, as though +we were sailing into the heart of a deep bight, as indeed we were. +Before long great ice-covered peaks began to appear, and I asked the +skipper if he was going to keep away for the Straits of Le Maire. “No,” +he replied, “I’m not going through now for several reasons; in the +first place, I think the wind will head us in the straits, and in the +second place, as long as this wind keeps on I’m going to heave to under +the land when we get farther down. What’s the good of going through? +As soon as we showed ourselves outside Staten Land there’d be this +westerly gale, with who knows how much sea; then there’s a two-knot +current settin’ to the eastward, and this, with three points of leeway, +would send us to leeward like a cask. Better lie snug inside than go +smashin’ into those seas. In a day or two perhaps we can go through the +Straits of Le Mar.” It is odd that every ship-master whom I have ever +heard mention these straits should call it Le Mar instead of Le Maire. +Captain Scruggs added that we<span class="pagenum" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</span> would have fine views of Tierra del +Fuego later on, as he was going to run down to within ten miles of the +land; we are therefore anticipating a very great treat.</p> + +<p>It is utterly impossible to fitly describe these sunsets or to do +justice to the wild grandeur of the scene as the orb slowly and +majestically settles into the sea among the far-away, golden-cushioned +clouds. In the tropics the sun seems to drop suddenly behind the +horizon; but in these high latitudes, he sinks so hesitatingly that it +appears as though he were loath to bid us good-night. The air at this +time of day is most wonderfully transparent here, with a sparkle of +frost in the atmosphere; while the clouds, being almost exclusively +of the stratus variety, stretch across the horizon in layers of fiery +embers, with sometimes a gorgeous fringe of cloud-fleece crowning the +scene with a coronet of dazzling splendor; while if a heavy bar of +dark cloud extends almost to the sky-line, the sun will be observed +glittering beneath it upon the crests of the far-distant seas, with the +appearance as of a phalanx of golden breakers.</p> + +<p>The heavens on this side of the Cape seem to be always clear with a +westerly wind, even when blowing a gale; and as the twilights are +exceedingly long, the days so far are anything but disagreeable. The +dismal, rainy weather will come when we get over beyond the longitude +of the Horn. Gradually the sun is getting lower at noon, the altitude +to-day being but 14°, while the orb rises at a point about northeast +by north and sets in the west-northwest. It is a significant fact that +at twelve o’clock to-day we were exactly abreast of the southernmost +extremity of the mainland of the world. Cape Horn is generally +regarded as this point, but the Horn itself is naught but an island, +the farthest south of the great archipelago of Tierra del Fuego; the +culminating promontory of South America being Cape<span class="pagenum" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</span> Froward in the +middle of the Straits of Magellan, one hundred and twenty-two miles +north of the Horn. Latitude, 53° 54′ south; longitude, 66° 6′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">July 10</span></p> + +<p>All night we have been lying off and on under shelter of the coast, +waiting for a favorable slant. Under easy sail, the lower topsails and +foresail, we approach to within six or eight miles of the land; and +then wearing round, stand to the northward for twenty miles or so, +repeating the manœuvre slowly, never making more than two miles an +hour. The wind still holds to the westward, blowing a moderate gale, +but with perfectly smooth water here where we are. On the other hand, +outside it is doubtless blowing a hard gale with a heavy sea; as the +skipper put it, “Outside it’s a regular Cape Horn snorter. I lay in +here six days with a westerly gale three years ago. All ships, you +know, lie in here when the wind is like this till they get a slant. You +see, if we went outside now, while we could get to the s’uth’ard all +right, to-morrow at noon we’d likely be a hundred miles to the east’ard +of where we are now. As for goin’ through Le Mar, I wouldn’t try it +with the wind to the north’ard of nor’west.”</p> + +<p>So here we are in water as free from swell as a Central Park lake, +taking things very comfortably indeed. But if the sea is free from +swell, it is continuously whipped into foam by the succession of +tearing snow-squalls which strike us with seemingly cyclonic fury. At +eleven o’clock, for instance, it will calm down to a royal breeze; +at 11.10 it will be blowing a full gale, accompanied with a driving +snow-storm, which whirls the flakes along in a horizontal tempest; +and as the temperature was at 33° all day, the drifts lay in the +scuppers until shovelled overboard. How cosy and cheerful it is to +come down to the great, glowing stove<span class="pagenum" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</span> from one of these black squalls +and the roaring wind and the sleet and hail, which feel as though +they were drawing blood as they sting the face with a fury which is +simply resistless! For below everything is delightfully comfortable +at a temperature of 65°, and we draw near to the red coals and shiver +composedly as we listen to the watch hauling around the yards to the +cry of “wear ship.”</p> + +<p>We will never forget the spectacle which met our eyes this morning +half an hour after daybreak. Right before us lay the bleak shores of +Tierra del Fuego, stretching from east to west as far as the eye could +see, the wildest, grandest coast which the mind can conceive. Sheer +down into the sea fell its almost vertical walls of rock and steep, +rugged hills, with their black gorges and frowning chasms filled with +the snow which had fallen heavily during the night. Farther inland +extended a broad expanse of rolling plateau covered with small knolls; +and then in all their desolate sublimity rose the magnificent range +of snowy mountains, thousands of feet above the sea, clad in their +eternal mantle of dazzling white. I have never before seen such a +picture as that presented by this deserted, volcanic land. The gray, +mournful hills and snow-clad Alpine peaks, now buried in a raging +snow-squall, now rearing their ice-crowned summits far above the +mists which shrouded their less exalted companions, filled the mind +with the idea that their Maker, displeased at His own handiwork, had +abandoned forever these lonely shores to the gloomy pall of cloud +which usually enfolds the land in its cold, clammy embrace, and to the +fierce, wild gales which sweep everlastingly through its gaunt and +spectral mountains. What eerie fancies the dark and powerful genius +of Edgar Allan Poe could wreathe about this fantastic, uncouth land! +Oh, for a day’s wandering through those valleys and ravines, as cold +and cheerless as the moon itself! And how I envied<span class="pagenum" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</span> the “Beagle’s” men +their months of sojourn amidst the grandeur of these fascinating hills!</p> + +<p>Some curious forms are to be seen in connection with many of these +peaks. The most conspicuous landmark consists of three hills called +the Three Brothers, from twelve to sixteen hundred feet in height; +ship-masters always look for them, as they can then tell exactly where +they are. One of the loftiest of the ice-peaks, a mountain fully five +thousand feet high, bears a strong resemblance to the Matterhorn when +the shadows of evening fall across its great snow-cliffs; another +looks singularly like the rounded cone of Cotopaxi. And so it goes, +one peak apparently more beautiful than its neighbor, till the eye is +bewildered gazing upon such wonderful Antarctic scenery. How intensely +interesting it must be to pass through the famous Straits of Magellan +and look upon the wonderful panorama which is revealed at every turn +of the rudder! Steamers are the only vessels that go through now in +either direction, as the channel is very tortuous and the currents are +powerful and treacherous. The experiment was at one time considered by +the Chileans of maintaining a fleet of large tow-boats at Cape Virgins +to tow vessels through the straits; but it was concluded that the ships +would have to be taken so far out into the Pacific beyond Cape Pillar +to get an offing, which would frequently be impossible on account of +westerly gales, that the project was abandoned. The expense of towing, +too, would be very great, as four hundred miles separate Capes Virgins +and Pillar, and no ship-master, of course, would tow to the eastward, +as there is nearly always a fair wind coming around this way, so that +the tug-boats would have to return empty-handed.</p> + +<p>The climate of this country is as equable as that of the Falklands, +though even more humid. The temperature seldom falls below 30° even in +July; but, on the other<span class="pagenum" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</span> hand, it seldom rises above 50° in midsummer, +and the wind at all times is extraordinarily cold and penetrating. +In spite of this, however, the natives pass their lives in absolute +nakedness, their sole protection against the rigors of the inhospitable +climate being a smearing of oil upon their bodies, and in this state +they go out to meet vessels passing through the straits. It seems +almost inconceivable that human beings can live thus in such severe +weather, for their exposure is infinitely greater than that of the +Esquimo even in his temperature of minus 70°, for the latter is warmly +clad and housed. The Yahgans, as the inhabitants of the lower portion +of the archipelago are called, are of particularly low intelligence, +and, according to Dr. Fenton, they not infrequently kill and eat the +old and useless women of the tribe. Their language comprises about +thirty thousand words, but, strangely enough, only five numerals.</p> + +<p>Since 1881 the eastern portion of Tierra del Fuego, together with +Staten Island (usually called by sailors Staten Land), has belonged to +the Argentine, and the western end to Chile, the boundary-line being +supposed to run from Cape Espiritu Santo due south to Beagle Channel, +the only settlement within hundreds of miles being Punta Arenas (Sandy +Point) on the Patagonia side of the straits, where the Chileans have a +convict and coaling station. The Straits of Magellan were discovered by +the celebrated Portuguese of that name, though he spelled it Magalhães, +who sailed through them in 1520. If any one wishes to look at a +remarkable sight, let him possess himself of one of Imray’s charts of +Tierra del Fuego and examine the prodigious number of channels, fjords, +and inlets in this remote and vast archipelago which forms the abode +of eight thousand people as low in the gauge of civilization as can be +found upon the earth.</p> + +<p>I wonder how many persons are aware of the fact that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</span> the famous old +“Dreadnaught” laid her bones upon the bleak rocks of Tierra del Fuego +as her final resting place! She drifted ashore near the Straits of +Magellan, while on a voyage to San Francisco, during a heavy swell +in a dead calm, with her main-sky-sail set. What a sorrowful end for +that grand old ship, the “Wild Boat of the Atlantic,” the queen of the +clippers, the fastest of all the great fleet which sailed the ocean +from Sandy Hook to Queenstown! Peace to her remains in her grave by +these iron-bound shores! Latitude, 54° 19′ south; longitude, 65° 45′ +west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">July 11</span></p> + +<p>Late yesterday afternoon the sun astonished us by bursting out in +glorious splendor, and for the two remaining hours of daylight we +sailed along parallel with the land distant only eight miles, in plain +view of the Three Brothers, past Cape St. Vincent and Thetis Bay. +Truly, the days are none too long now, for the sun rises at 8.30 and +sets at 3.30, so that on dark days—and there are plenty of them here +now—we have not more than six hours of what can be called daylight. +Last night was very fine, too, with an almost full moon soaring +through a cloudless sky. Throughout the earlier part of the evening we +continued to hold an easterly course, for the captain wanted to have +a look at the Straits of Le Maire to consider the chances of going +through at daybreak. Some little time after we had finished supper, +about seven o’clock, I think, we caught sight of the huge, snow-bound +cliffs of Cape San Diego, the southeasternmost extremity of Tierra +del Fuego, lying calm and cold in the white moonlight, and a little +later we opened out the clear water of the Le Maire Straits. Then we +saw outside a thick bank of woolly cloud low down in the southwest, +and the skipper concluded that he wouldn’t risk going through the next +day, as that bank<span class="pagenum" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</span> was the infallible indicator of a heavy blow. Added +to this, too, was the long, heaving swell of the Southern Ocean piling +in through the fourteen miles of open water in the straits, so we wore +round and stood to the northward again. It was very pleasant last night +on deck, for though it was blowing hard the lee side of the wheel-house +made a delightfully snug retreat, and, enveloped in mountains of +rugs and shawls, we sat there in the deck-chairs till nearly eleven, +discussing the voyage and enjoying the clear, soft moonlight.</p> + +<p>We awoke this morning to the howling of the wind and Captain Scruggs’s +voice raised in furious anger, the helmsman sustaining the full shock +of the vocal hurricane. It was the unhappy Brün, who throughout the +voyage has suffered more than any one else from the temper and violence +of both captain and mates. “Hey you, what the blank’s the matter with +yer? Put yer wheel hard down there and let her come up to the wind. The +other way, the other way. Don’t yer know the difference yet between up +and down, eh? What the blank did yer come to sea for anyway? You’re +a haymaker, that’s what you are. Look at the ship now; d’ye want to +get her aback? Hard up yer wheel; hard up, you blank-blanked farmer’s +hound! How yer headin’ now?”</p> + +<p>“Nor’west by south, sir,” answered the poor devil, nearly out of his +head. “Now, by the jumpin’——” Here the wind cut off the rest, but +there was a tumultuous scuffle of feet, and I could very well imagine +the scene which was being enacted overhead; so as quickly as possible +we dressed and went on deck to find a fresh gale blowing from the +westward, with a very steep, quick sea. It was just daybreak and both +sky and sea had a very ferocious aspect, the atmosphere being charged +now and then with long spears of sleet. After looking at the weather<span class="pagenum" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</span> +for a few minutes I happened to glance to leeward, and was almost +stunned to behold the ponderous headland of Cape St. Anthony, at the +western end of Staten Land, towering into the sky, not more than +three miles away! No wonder the old man was almost in convulsions. +“We must be in the Straits of Le Maire,” said I to my wife. And so +we were. It appears that Captain Scruggs had determined to try it, +and had gone half-way through, when, at the eleventh hour, he decided +that he couldn’t fetch by the land; and as the wind came on to blow a +gale which the woolly bank had foretold, he wore ship to stand to the +northward once more. He probably miscalculated the strength of the +current, which runs through the straits with astonishing velocity, +often reaching five knots an hour, for all at once the mate, whose +sight in semi-darkness is better than the skipper’s, called out, “Land +on the lee, sir.” Our position was really one of great peril, for we +were on a dead lee shore and unable to carry sail enough to double +the point with any degree of certainty. If we didn’t weather it, it +was good-by for all hands, for even now we could see the great surges +seething against that terrible coast, where the land is so bold that a +ship may lay her jib-boom end head on against the cliffs and still have +fathoms of water beneath her keel. With the canvas which was on her at +the moment, lower topsails and foresail, it was an impossibility for +the ship to hold her own, and as quickly as possible a double-reefed +maintop-sail was set, the difference in going to windward being felt +at once. But could she carry it? She <i>must</i>, for the lives of +twenty-seven persons depended upon the ship’s weathering Cape St. +Anthony. No one thought of breakfast, and at half-past eight it was +blowing harder than ever, and in the heavy, windward rolls it seemed +as though the masts themselves would succumb to the terrific puffs. +From the shore we<span class="pagenum" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</span> must have presented a magnificent spectacle indeed, +had any one been there to witness the struggle going on between man’s +skill and Nature’s power. Slowly we forged ahead; but slowly and far +more certainly we drove down toward the foaming rocks; and all hands +by this time, even the most callous of the sailors, realized that we +were fighting in earnest now, fighting to save the ship. Not a word +was spoken by any one; the men were collected at the weather-rail in +the waist watching the land draw nearer and nearer, while the captain +stood on the cabin-house motionless, except when he slightly revolved +his arm as a signal to the helmsman to hold her up all he could between +the puffs. Oh, how deserted and bleak the immense gray-brown cliffs +and snow-streaked hills of Staten Land appeared, broken now and then +by gigantic fissures which extended far inland between vertical walls, +against which the sea broke furiously, throwing cascades of spray high +into the air! Astern, too, the view was equally rugged and grand, for +across the Straits of Le Maire we could see the ragged coast of Tierra +del Fuego and the massive white cone of the Bell Mountain rising up +beyond the Bay of Good Success.</p> + +<p>All at once it became apparent to us that we were holding a better +wind, the land no longer seemed to advance upon us, and at the end of +another half-hour, during which no one seemed to scarcely breathe, to +our unspeakable joy it was plain that the worst was over and that, bar +accident, we would fetch by without further anxiety; and presently the +skipper turned to Louis, the Frenchman (for this splendid seaman had +steered the ship beautifully since eight o’clock), and said, “Now give +her a good rap-full”; in thirty minutes more all danger was over and we +stowed that upper maintop-sail which had done such noble work.</p> + +<p>One <span class="allsmcap">P.M.</span> The wind has risen to a full gale with puffs of +almost hurricane force; and though we are still protected<span class="pagenum" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</span> by the land, +the sea is running high, probably thirty feet from crest to trough, +and breaking in an ugly manner. At noon the order was passed, “All +hands haul up the foresail.” This was the first occasion on which it +was blowing too hard to carry that sail; and when it has to be stowed +it is blowing what sailors call a heavy gale. The wind, indeed, almost +blew the breath back into one’s throat; but the brave old ship behaved +finely, and after the foresail was hauled up, no matter how high or +fast the advancing wave was or how suddenly it broke, the back-wash +would rush out from the vessel’s side, and, meeting the on-rushing sea, +they would shoot far up into the air, to be blown in drift all over +the ship, while she rode calmly and safely over the crest. We have not +set the spencer lately, as we have been wearing every few hours, which +would necessitate brailing it up every time; I was surprised that the +captain didn’t set it this morning, but he seemed to depend more upon +the maintop-sail.</p> + +<p>There are two vessels to windward knocking about under easy sail +as we are,—one a small bark, the other a large four-masted ship, +square-rigged all over,—waiting for a slant. My wife has recovered +her equanimity now (about three in the afternoon), for she was +not unnaturally upset by the events of this morning. She behaved +astonishingly well, though, during that crucial hour, and her courage +and fortitude cannot be too highly commended. Latitude, 54° 20′ south; +longitude, 64° 30′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">July 12</span></p> + +<p>It came on to blow so hard yesterday afternoon that tackles were put on +the tiller, and a little before four o’clock the ship was hove to, so +that when we went on deck at eight bells, after writing up yesterday’s +journal, the ship was riding the seas smoothly and dryly. Perhaps it +wasn’t<span class="pagenum" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</span> absolutely necessary to heave the ship to, though she was far +more comfortable that way, the difference being quite remarkable. The +first object which attracted us as we went on deck was a three-masted +ship head-reaching past us on the starboard tack under lower topsails +and foretop-mast stay-sail, distant about half a mile. When yachts pass +each other on opposite tacks they lie so close to the wind that they +cross at right angles to each other, thus: But when two square-riggers +pass each other, close-hauled, they are so far off the wind, especially +in a high sea, that they run past each other parallel. This shows how +the stranger and ourselves passed by: It did not require much of an +eye to discern that this was the Frenchman, the “La Pallice,” which +we spoke about ten days ago bound round the Horn from Hamburg; and +I must say that she commanded admiration as she slowly ran by us in +the gathering dusk, a beautiful specimen of the iron ship-builder’s +art. As previously mentioned, the relieving tackles were put on the +tiller at about four o’clock, after the wheel had thrown the helmsman +completely over itself and through the lee wheel-house door, for he +clung heroically to the spokes.</p> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp20" id="i_196" style="max-width: 24.6875em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/i_196.jpg" alt="Alignment of ships"> +</figure> + +<p>When the “La Pallice” was about half a mile astern, she put her helm +up to wear round on the same tack which we were on. At that moment the +whole spectacle was a most thrilling one, ourselves plunging into a +fierce head-sea, the flocks of sea-fowl whirling through the gale, and +the angry sky, each contributed its part to the sombre picture; while +a great rent in the western clouds cast a broad shaft of light through +the gloom full upon the big Frenchman, now in the act of wearing. Even +Captain Scruggs and the second mate were impressed with the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</span> solemnity +of the scene until they were attracted by the actions of the stranger. +She had now worn completely around on the port tack, and as she had +passed us so close to windward, we all thought that she would come +up on our lee-quarter. But what is this? Can it be possible that her +captain is going to try to put himself on our weather to show how his +ship can hold a wind? He can scarcely be so mad as that. On comes the +ship, however, nearer and nearer; fathom by fathom she hauls up on +us till she is not more than a quarter of a mile astern and not two +hundred yards to windward, and we can plainly see the whole of her +forefoot, as her great bows, shearing through a sea, are flung high +up, and then come crushing down in a smother of foam. All of our men +have crowded to the side, for here is a spectacle indeed: a vessel +bearing down upon another hove to and without steerage-way! However, +she has still time to put her wheel up and pass under our stern; but +no such notion is entertained by the maniac in command of her, and he +is pinching her till her weather-leeches shiver in his mad endeavor +to pass us to windward; and as the ship rises to a sea and pauses for +an instant on its crest, it seems as though she would topple right +down upon us. At this juncture Captain Scruggs begins to grow anxious, +as well he might, and mutters, “Is that d—— fool really going to +try it?” Five minutes more pass, and it becomes evident that we must +get out of her way or be cut down by that sharp iron stem. Now this +is quite a long job, being hove to, for it would be at least several +minutes before we could gather headway. But we must do something, so +the skipper sings out, “Cast off those tackles,” and two men are sent +to the wheel. Anxiously we watch to see her head fall off, but she +stubbornly hangs. “Square that crojjick-yard.” This is done; and then +very heavily and clumsily we fall off and begin to gather<span class="pagenum" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</span> way. So +close are we to the Frenchman now that we could talk to those on board +if the wind were not so strong. But we are not out of danger yet, for +the French skipper seems possessed of a devil, and follows us up, as +his vessel appears to handle like a yacht. It is but a few minutes +more, though, until we have put half a mile of clear water between +ourselves and M. Crapeau, and the danger is, for the time being, a +thing of the past.</p> + +<p>All through the night, though, this demon ship haunted us, as if we +were a magnet which resistlessly attracted her iron hull. I believe +that if Captain Scruggs and the second mate could have laid hands on +the French skipper, they would have strangled him. At supper, whither +we repaired after the excitement, the captain delivered the following +address: “If you see an English, or a Dutch, or a German, or a Danish, +or a Norwegian, or an American vessel near you, don’t be afraid, for +he’s all right. But if it’s a Frenchman or an Eyetalian, get behind the +horizon just as soon as you can, for nobody can tell what he’s goin’ to +do.”</p> + +<p>During the night sail was made, the wind having dropped to force 7, and +this morning broke fine, clear, and cold, and showed us the frog-eater +to windward. Will it be credited that no sooner did he catch sight of +us than he started down the wind toward us? At least, so it looked; but +he had only squared away for Cape St. John, at the other end of the +island, having evidently given up all hope of the Le Maire Straits.</p> + +<p>We were presented with a beautiful view of the middle part of Staten +Land this morning at eleven o’clock. It differs from the western end +in that the snows, instead of being confined to the upper half of +the mountains, appeared to reach down to the sea itself. How silent +and cold the hills looked with the sun striking the sharp peaks and +throwing its purple shadows across the great snow-fields<span class="pagenum" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</span> between! So +dazzling were the mountains that, had we not known them to be land, we +would have supposed that they were icebergs. It is singular that such a +scene is not one of desolation, but of immutable repose, and seems to +partake of that calm, fascinating peace and quiet which so irresistibly +attracts explorers to the Polar seas. It was a vista of enchantment, +and it was difficult to believe that in the region of Cape Horn there +existed scenes of such surpassing loveliness.</p> + +<p>It was the captain’s intention to try the straits once more this +afternoon; but, alas! the implacable westerly winds began to lash out +again; and it is now, 3.30 <span class="allsmcap">P.M.</span>, blowing as hard as ever, +the sky is covered with heavy snow-clouds, and everything is gloomy +and dreary once more. We now have to light the lamps below to read by +soon after two o’clock; this is the third day of westerly gales, and +goodness knows how long they may have been blowing before we got down +here; these are the winds which keep ships off Cape Horn for a month at +a time. One of the most arduous and protracted passages of the Horn was +that of Lord Anson on his famous voyage in 1740-41, when he was three +months in doubling the stormy Cape; while in modern times the cases +of the British ships “Natuna” and “The Hahnemann” offer examples of +what the weather can do down here. They each made passages within the +last year of about two hundred and thirty days from Great Britain to +San Francisco. The “Natuna” had a particularly hard passage; she made +four distinct attempts to round the Horn, but was driven back so far +each time that Captain Fretwurst decided to square away for the Good +Hope passage, which he did, running down the eighty-five degrees of +longitude which separate the capes in nineteen days. The cargo was a +miserable one, cement and creosote, and while off the Horn some of the +casks<span class="pagenum" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</span> containing the latter were stove, and the drinking-water became +tainted with the disagreeable stuff. To the eastward of Good Hope the +parrels of several of the yards carried away in a gale of wind, and the +captain had to lash them with chains and wire, while he ran away over +into 130° west before hauling up to the northward. The other vessel, +“The Hahnemann,” had just as hard a passage, though she stuck to Cape +Horn, and her captain died during the voyage. About eighty-five guineas +premium had been paid on both vessels.</p> + +<p>A curious phase of the weather to the northward and eastward of the +Horn is that a westerly gale generally doesn’t blow steadily for more +than twelve hours, when it will clear up for a while and then begin +again; while fine, clear nights often succeed the most villanous +weather during the daytime.</p> + +<p>This morning we sent down the three sky-sail-yards and secured them on +top of the forward house; this is the practice of some ship masters, +while others never do so; but to strike them must certainly greatly +relieve the strain on the backstays, for each sky-sail-yard, including +sail and gear, weighs about seven hundred pounds, and the leverage +of a ton one hundred and sixty feet from the fulcrum must be very +considerable. Latitude, 54° 20′ south; longitude, 64° 20′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">July 13</span></p> + +<p>All last night it blew a fresh breeze and we gradually fell away to +leeward, and at two o’clock this morning the captain decided to abandon +Le Maire and kept off for Cape St. John. When we went on deck after +breakfast (it was too dark to see anything before eight o’clock) we +were startled at the sight. Broadside on, and parallel with our course, +lay the extreme eastern end of Staten Land, distant<span class="pagenum" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</span> not more than two +miles, with the tiny, cosy harbor of St. John just abeam. So close to +the land were we that we could easily see the stunted evergreens that +covered the hills up to the snow-line, which is much higher here than +towards the middle of the island, where the breakers seem to fling +their spray upon the fields of snow; while high up on a rugged mountain +side there stood an isolated, lonely pine-tree, bringing to mind those +exquisite lines of Heine:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“Ein Fichtenbaum steht einsam</div> + <div class="verse indent0">im Norden auf kahler Höh’,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">ihn schläfert, mit weisser Decke</div> + <div class="verse indent0">umhüllen ihn Eis und Schnee.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Er träumpt von einer Palme,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">die fern im Morgenland</div> + <div class="verse indent0">einsam und schweigend trauert</div> + <div class="verse indent0">auf brennender Felsenwand.”</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>Now that we had approached so closely we hoped to get some photographs +of the hills, especially when the sun, bursting from a cloud on the +horizon, threw his horizontal rays upon the distant peaks. But, alas! +they showed up as nothing but a blur upon the finder. St. John, +comparatively speaking, looked like a snug, comfortable little place, +but hardly such a one as a man would voluntarily choose to winter in, +as do a colony of hardy sealers. The harbor seems to be formed by a +neck of land projecting out from the right-hand side of the entrance, +upon the verge of which we perceived the diminutive light-house +which guides the rugged South Shetland seal-catchers into safety. On +the port hand going in, over against the light-house, rises a lofty +cone composed of a single huge crag, standing sentry-like over the +safe harbor within; while roundabout on all sides tower great, dark, +scowling mountains and vast precipices, the harbor being in reality +naught but a cleft in the hills, after the manner<span class="pagenum" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</span> of a Scandinavian +fjord. Yet the wild beauty of the place enchants one, and long before +we had lost sight of the little light-house I had acknowledged to my +wife that, after all, the thought of a winter spent in St. John was not +such a very dreadful one, for the fascination of Nature in her grander +forms far outweighs bodily inconveniences; it is safe to say that von +Humboldt in the deep recesses of the Ecuadorian Andes and Hooker in +the awful solitudes of the Himalayas often longed for even the rude +comforts provided in a settlement like St. John.</p> + +<p>We looked in vain with the glasses for the little steamer which makes +regular, monthly trips to the Falkland Islands and at times even to +Montevideo; but she was not visible, and was no doubt away on one of +her voyages. A truly turbulent life in one sense this one on the little +vessel, but hardly so dreary as the lives of the seal-fishers who +winter at St. John, which is, I believe, the southernmost permanent +settlement on the globe, and from October to April penetrate deep into +the Southern Ocean in pursuit of their livelihood.</p> + +<p>Two strange, natural formations attract the attention far out on Cape +St. John. The first is a mass of gray rock perched upon the very brim +of a vertical cliff, almost overhanging the surf that boils furiously +around it, bearing a striking resemblance to an ancient feudal castle; +and one can see, as it were, the high walls with heavy battlements, and +the lofty crenellated towers of the massive edifice. The second object +is another monolith so closely resembling the Sphinx that one starts on +first catching sight of it, for it seems impossible that mere chance +could produce so accurate a counterpart of the famous Egyptian monument.</p> + +<p>Well, we have seen Staten Land almost in its entirety; and if we didn’t +have the satisfaction of passing through the Le Maire Straits, we went +a third of the distance in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</span> last Sunday morning; and we have beheld the +cape and settlement of St. John, where the scenery is, if possible, +even grander and more desolate than at the western end. How odd it is, +by the way, if Cape St. Anthony, near the straits, should have been +so called from the temptation that possesses mariners to pass through +instead of going around the island, thereby often incurring great risk!</p> + +<p>On issuing into the open sea we fell into a tide-rip caused by the +swift currents meeting at the point of the land, this rip being at +times so heavy as to fill the decks of large ships. A number of +hail-squalls descended upon us here, and as the land at noontime had +grown very dim, at that hour we had what I fear was our last glimpse of +the sorrowful hills of Staten Land.</p> + +<p>We found a long swell outside, but not nearly as much as we had +anticipated, though we are as yet under shelter of the land. As for the +wind, it is now almost calm, the hour being three in the afternoon; +but there is nothing set above the topsails on account of frequent +squalls of considerable violence. The men are now so heavily wrapped +up in clothes as to resemble nothing so much as corpulent mummies. +They have to waddle instead of walk, and many of them have tied pieces +of gunny sacks over their rubber boots. This, singularly enough, is +a wonderful protection against cold; and they assert that if nothing +else is handy, by simply pulling a pair of heavy socks over their boots +their feet do not grow numb. It is strange that it should be so cold +with the mercury no lower than 36°; yet here are stout, hardy men who +have to knock off work sometimes to beat some life into themselves when +the mate isn’t looking. My own clothes now weigh twenty-two pounds, or +seventeen without the boots; this includes three suits of underwear +and a sheepskin coat with the wool on, just as it came from the flank +of the animal. Every one<span class="pagenum" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</span> knows how the spectators rattle and shake +at a football game in spite of thick wraps when the thermometer is no +lower than 50°; how much more penetrating it must be here, then, when +the mercury is nearly twenty degrees lower, and when the atmosphere is +charged with that bitterness peculiar to the air at sea in the higher +latitudes!</p> + +<p>It cannot be said that we have done particularly well so far on this +voyage, for we have been nine weeks at sea this day and have only just +pushed out into the Southern Ocean. I wonder how long it will be before +we can point our jib-boom for the north star again? Latitude, 54° 50′ +south; longitude, 63° 36′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">July 14</span></p> + +<p>Last night was an almost perfect one, with moonlight nearly as bright +as sunshine and the sky absolutely free from clouds. About the hour +of sunset we witnessed what, for spectacular effects, was perhaps the +finest scenery that we have had yet. At four o’clock all the mists, +etc., that sailors call muck had disappeared, disclosing in its entire +length of fifty miles the south side of Staten Land. This consists +altogether of jagged rocks and fierce, angry peaks shooting up three +thousand feet above the sea. The eastern or St. John end of the island +was wrapped in gloom and shadow, while the rest of the land swept +superbly down toward the west, stretching away in ridges of wonderfully +fantastic beauty, the peaks near the straits soaring up grandly against +a rich crimson glare where the sun had sunk behind a rift in the +clouds. Gradually, however, the light was diffused over the entire +western heavens, changing from soft golden tints to royal purples and +scarlets, which spread over the glorious mountains a cloud-mantle +almost supernatural in its marvellous hues. Imperceptibly, however, the +bright colors began to wane and grow dull, shapes<span class="pagenum" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</span> of dun vapor seemed +to rise from the land, and at length darkness fell upon the deep and +the mountains receded till engulfed in the blackness of night.</p> + +<p>The scene on deck at 8.30 was also one long to be cherished, with the +joyous, rosy light of advancing day in the northeast, the full moon +slowly falling, a huge golden ball, behind the western horizon, and the +tall, violet pyramid of the Bell Mountain on Tierra del Fuego rising +out of the sea fair and soft, far away in the northwest. Ah, no one +knows what the real beauties of the sea are until he has made at least +one deep-water voyage in a sailing ship! The flying glimpse of the +Atlantic that one catches from the deck of a steamer or the experiences +of a midwinter voyage to the Mediterranean in a North German Lloyder +gives one no true idea of what ocean life really is. No; to comprehend +the sea in all of its splendid phases one must live on it for months at +a time; for not till then can one fully appreciate that “They that go +down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters; these see +the works of the Lord, and His wonders in the deep.”</p> + +<p>Up to eleven o’clock this morning the weather was perfect and we +carried the top-gallant-sails without trouble; we were heading our +course southwest, and the sun looked down from a cloudless sky. As we +went below at that hour we noticed a small bank dead ahead, but so +insignificant that I didn’t think anything more about it until half an +hour later, when, buried in the ice with Nansen, we became aware that +it was growing very dark. The next second the ship heeled far over, and +some one at the same instant cast off the spanker-halliards, the iron +mast-hoops jingling noisily as the sail ran down. Of course we were +on deck in another moment, and found that the wind had whipped around +seven points and that a heavy squall had struck the ship aback; the +great sails were swelled out<span class="pagenum" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</span> inboard against the masts and backstays, +while snow and sleet hurtled through the air in cutting blasts. +Luckily, the top-gallant-sails had been clewed up a quarter of an hour +before; but a large vessel in irons, even under short sail, in bad +weather is a shocking sight. The captain was perfectly self-contained, +however, and executed some rapid and precise manœuvres, no one losing +his head except the mate, who went bellowing around the decks till +brought to by the skipper’s angry commands, “Square that crojjick-yard; +get the spencer brailed up. Call all hands. Stop that noise and single +reef the fore- and maintop-sails.”</p> + +<p>Oh, well hast thou earned thy reputation, boisterous and treacherous +Cape! From bright skies and glorious sun-light we came in fifteen +minutes to reefed topsails, sobbing decks, and flying snow, while the +heavens were completely veiled in that puny cloud, which had expanded +as though by the agency of some black art. “Here comes Cape Horn,” said +MacFoy; and looking to windward, we beheld another sinister squall, +dark with snow, bearing swiftly down upon us. A squall with snow in +it can always be detected by its peculiarly black appearance. They +rapidly increased in number and severity, until now, the middle of the +afternoon watch, the wind seems to have settled down for a steady blow +from somewhere between west and south. The glass is very unsteady at +29.25, 5 <span class="allsmcap">P.M.</span> The wind has increased to a fresh gale, while +a heavy swell is rolling magnificently up from the southwest. This is +the first time that we have seen this heavy sea, as heretofore it has +been cut off by Cape Horn itself. Every minute it seems to increase, +and within forty-eight hours we will probably be surrounded by the +huge rollers which have made this region so famous. Even now they +are so large and steady that, as far as the apparent rise and fall +is concerned when below, we might almost as well be in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</span> perfectly +smooth water. Our experience of heavy seas has been that the largest +of them do not move rapidly, and at the present time the ship mounts +so leisurely to their summits that one cannot detect the motion. When +below, it is only in the tremendous roll of the vessel as she mounts to +the crests that one is conscious of the height of the seas.</p> + +<p>From existing indications we are going to make quite a good bit of +easting during the next twenty-four hours, for our course now is +south-southeast, and as there is a strong easterly current running +ceaselessly here, southeast will be nearer the true course. At noon we +were thirteen miles north of Cape Horn, but still considerably to the +eastward of it. Latitude, 55° 46′ south; longitude, 65° 48′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">July 15</span></p> + +<p>Last evening we prepared for a dirty night, and we got it. As the +captain and I were pacing the poop after supper, the moon then shining +brightly in a clear sky, suddenly, from a bank in the southwest, so low +and thin as to be almost invisible, there appeared a streak of light. +“Wasn’t that a flash of lightning?” asked the captain. “I think it +was,” said I; “it certainly looked like it.” “H’m,” said the skipper. +Closely we watched the southern horizon, and within ten minutes +perceived two more brilliant flashes. A more uncanny effect it would +be difficult to imagine; for, except the insignificant stratum near +the sea-line, no other cloud was visible in the heavens, and the vivid +streaks produced a startling effect in the white moonlight. After a +look at the glass, which stood at 29.15, the captain called the second +mate, who was on watch, and ordered the upper foretop-sail clewed +up and a reef tied in the foresail; the upper mizzentop-sail hasn’t +been set for some time, as it generally comes in when the cross-jack +is hauled up. The wind at the moment was from the west, force 6,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</span> a +strong breeze, with that deep swell that seems to be as eternal in the +Southern Ocean as the snows of Mount Everest. Quickly, though strangely +imperceptibly, some small, windy-looking clouds grew and expanded over +the heavens; and from eight last evening until daylight this morning +it was a night of furious squalls, thick snow and hail, and high seas. +Throughout the twelve hours we were under a single-reefed maintop-sail, +ditto foresail and main-sail and the spencer. During the fifteen or +twenty minutes that the squalls lasted the wind blew with terrific +force and shrieked like a thousand steam sirens in the rigging, and +then would follow a light spell, in which we might have carried +everything.</p> + +<p>Our first really hard squall came at 9.30, in the mate’s watch. It +was accompanied with a sweeping snow-storm that drove in great drifts +across the decks, the ship standing up like a church against the blasts +and sliding comparatively dry over the big seas that came piling toward +us out of the gloom, invisible till their foaming tops flashed out +of the darkness to windward. It was a grand, wild scene, and as the +heavier puffs went ripping through the shrouds with a peculiar scream, +I thought, as I looked at the driving snow and the darkness and the +raging ocean, that the Dusk of the Gods had come upon us. This squall +lasted fully thirty minutes, and so heavy was the fall of snow that it +took the watch some little time to shovel it overboard.</p> + +<p>All through the night we were afflicted with these unwelcome visitors, +variety being afforded by hail, which fell to the size of marrowfat +pease, while along the lee alley-way, as that part of the poop is +called between the cabin-house and the rail, crouched the forms of the +seamen, for they are compelled to stay aft every night now, ready at +an instant’s call, and not coiled away napping under the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</span> top-gallant +forecastle. The helmsman, too, was kept busy, for every squall seemed +to take us aback more or less, and the air rang with the voice of the +officer of the watch, “Put your wheel up, there!”</p> + +<p>It had never been our lot to witness so dismal a scene as that +disclosed to us at a quarter-past eight this morning. A squall had +just passed over us, and we were at the moment in a sickly calm, with +a high, greasy sea, which broke sluggishly at intervals like frothing +oil; the decks and weather-side of the masts and spars were covered +inch deep with the wet, clammy snow that had just fallen, the canvas +was flapping loudly against the masts in the great heaving rolls, and +that miserable, leaden-hued struggle was passing between the breaking +day and the wan, gibbous moon showing between the ragged clouds, which +casts so wretched and melancholy a light over all objects. A more +oppressive scene it would be impossible to picture, and it was the +moment best suited to him determined upon ending forever his earthly +career; while, as if to increase the desolate aspect, an immense +albatross, nearly white with age, flew circling around the ship, +driving before him the flock of pigeons that hovers continuously near +us.</p> + +<p>A rather distressing thought is that we are now well within the limit +of ice, and that every degree farther south renders more probable the +presence of some of these off-spring of the Antarctic Ice-King. This is +offset, however, by the fact that most of the ice is seen more to the +eastward of the Horn, and that it is usually not at all thick during +the winter season. February is the worst month for those huge ice +islands which render navigation in the Southern Ocean so hazardous an +undertaking. Fortunately, at the summer season actual darkness off the +Horn doesn’t last more than a couple of hours.</p> + +<p>The temperature has fallen, too, and to-day reached the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</span> freezing point +of fresh water, sea-water congealing at about 28°. To our surprise, the +sun showed himself at noon, and though the horizon was bad, we got an +approximately good sight, which showed that the orb was only 11° high, +and that we were a degree south of Cape Horn and fifty miles east of +it. Latitude, 56° 58′ south; longitude, 66° west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">July 16</span></p> + +<p>Hove to in a heavy gale, Cape Horn in sight, bearing at noon east by +north distant about fifteen miles! Yesterday afternoon it was very mild +as far as wind was concerned, and I went down on the main-deck and did +a lot of pumping to make up for the days lost through bad weather, +when it was dangerous to try it. From the main-deck the seas looked +infinitely larger than from the poop, the difference in elevation +of six or seven feet making an immense difference in their apparent +height. All through the early part of the night it was fine, and we set +the upper mizzen-top-sail and the spanker. By the way, it is remarkable +that a ship-rigged vessel will steer well with hardly any after-canvas +set. For instance, for some time previously the only sail on the +mizzen was the lower topsail; while forward were a jib, foretop-mast +stay-sail, both topsails, and reefed foresail.</p> + +<p>The squalls, too, eased up as the moon rose, and up to 2 <span class="allsmcap">A.M.</span> +the weather was fine. At midnight, though, a sinister movement was +noticed in the aneroid, the needle rising rapidly from 29. Every one +who knows Cape Horn understands what this signifies with a westerly +breeze,—it means a gale of wind. True to precedent, when we went on +deck after breakfast, the ship being then on the port tack, it was +breezing rapidly. After each squall it blew harder and harder, with +proportionally<span class="pagenum" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</span> increasing sea, and the skipper ventured the opinion +that we were going to see a Cape Horn “snorter.” At ten o’clock the +main-sail had to come in, the ship from being driven too hard taking +in large quantities of water, especially from the lee side. So both +watches were called, and it was a spirited scene as the sturdy fellows +stretched along the deck, heedless of the seas that thundered aboard +every few minutes, while they manned the weather main-clew-garnet with +a chorus that rose above the gale. Brave? A more courageous lot of men +than Cape Horn foremast hands do not exist!</p> + +<p>Here the old man thought he’d take a hand, though everything was +running smoothly; so he hopped down on deck, sprang up on the +main-hatch, and in thirty seconds so great was the distraction that +the men didn’t know whether they were hauling on the main-buntlines +or the jib-downhaul. The skipper commenced in what was for him a mild +exhortation to “Pull away lively, now; pull away there.” But the men +were thoroughly drenched by this time, and the teeth of the weaker were +beginning to chatter; for of what use are oil-skins to a man in two or +three feet of water, when he is constantly tripping on the slippery +deck and flying headlong as the ship rolls? By and by the skipper began +to swear, and then it was all up with everything; five minutes later he +was in a whirling cyclonic passion. He fairly jigged upon the hatch in +his frenzy, and thumped his chest with his right fist as he clung with +his left to the lee lower maintop-sail-sheet, still urging the men to +“pull away.” At length his temper so flew away with him that he seemed +to strangle, and the last sentence we heard was, “Catch hold of any +d—— thing and haul on it.”</p> + +<p>In spite of him, however, both main-sail and foresail were hauled up +in an hour and a half, the ship being then under lower topsails and +spencer, and the captain announced his<span class="pagenum" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</span> intention of wearing round +after dinner, adding, “You could see Cape Horn now if it wasn’t for the +snow.”</p> + +<p>All this time the wind had been increasing, and by the time that dinner +was over it had risen to a full gale. “Land on the lee beam,” sung +out the lynx-eyed mate at one o’clock. We looked; and there, down to +leeward, we perceived the most famous promontory in the world, the +terrible Cape Horn itself, smothered in gloom, rising dimly out of the +sea about fifteen miles away. “Brail up that spencer and stand by to +wear ship.” “Ay, ay, sir,” cheerfully, for a hot meal had put life into +the men. And now there followed a spectacle that it will be impossible +ever to forget. The wind was roaring from the southwest a violent gale, +accompanied with tremendous squalls blowing with inconceivable fury, +swallowing us up in blinding snow. The ocean had assumed a terrible +appearance, white as a snow-drift to windward; while at intervals we +could see the breaking crest of some immense sea, towering high above +the rest in his grand and stately progress. The helm was then put hard +up, the main- and cross-jack-yards were squared, and we fell away dead +before the wind.</p> + +<p>For the next fifteen minutes a scene was enacted that absolutely defied +a description worthy of it. The huge, shaggy seas came rushing along +astern, full sixty feet from crest to trough; and when close by, if +you wanted to follow their progress, you had to throw your head back +as though looking up at a mountain peak, while they shook their white +manes like wild horses, and it seemed as if they must crash over the +stern. But no, the ship rode them superbly, and when she reached +the crest of one, and we looked deep down into that dark-green, +foam-streaked valley astern, we caught our breath as the billows ran +under us and fell thundering upon the main-deck forward. The sight of +the great ship with nothing set but the three lower topsails,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</span> flying +before the gale, almost choked you with emotion. It was grand, it was +fearfully sublime. It was the apotheosis of the power and majesty of +God.</p> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp90" id="i_212a" style="max-width: 139.125em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/i_212a.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption class="caption"><p>A fifty-foot Cape Horn gray-beard</p></figcaption> +</figure> + +<p>An albatross, too, in a storm is a wonderful sight. No matter how +furious the gale, no matter how fierce the terrific, hurricane squalls +of Cape Horn, the great bird soars up against the blast grim and +serene. Then wheeling, he comes sweeping down on the wings of the gale +at a speed so tremendous that it cannot be less than eighty or even +ninety miles an hour, when, describing a low but immense circle, with +the tip of his lee wing just brushing the tops of the giant seas, he +again takes his flight upward against the storm. No living creature +conveys the idea of boundless freedom so perfectly as the King of +Space, the Wandering Albatross.</p> + +<p>By two o’clock in the afternoon we had the relieving tackles on the +tiller, and when darkness came after a sickly, pallid sunset, it found +us hove to in a mountainous sea, with the same angry squalls yelling in +savage, ruthless glee over this desert ocean. Latitude. 56° 12′ south; +longitude, 67° 24′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">July 17</span></p> + +<p>Last night the gale diminished somewhat; but at eleven o’clock the +chain topping-lift of the spencer-gaff carried away, and we had to rig +a makeshift with a tackle until to-day.</p> + +<p>In yesterday’s log I forgot to mention an incident that happened which +came very nearly being a lamentable accident. After we had worn around, +at about thirty minutes past one, while some of the men were hauling +taut the weather forebrace, we were boarded by an enormous sea that +came whooping over the weather-side. The whole of the starboard watch, +including the second mate, were hauling<span class="pagenum" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</span> on the brace when the sea +broke on board and fell directly upon them. I never saw anything like +the scene that followed. The men absolutely disappeared from view. It +was as though they had gone through the deck. Only once before had we +seen so great a volume of water on a ship’s deck, and that was during +our first voyage when we were hove down to the turnbuckles in the North +Atlantic. Yesterday it was, at the very least, two feet deep on the +level, and it filled the galley and carpenter-shop, putting out the +fires in the donkey-boiler, and this through the lee doors. During all +this time we looked in vain for the sight of a human being. Not one +was to be seen on the main-deck, and the water was dashing up twenty +or thirty feet into the air at every heave. Gradually it began to +run off, and now and then a clumsy, yellow bundle loomed up out of a +snarl of ropes, sat up for a second, and then went whizzing away to +leeward. Again a man would gain his feet and clutch frantically at +belaying-pins; but before he could support himself his legs would slide +from under him, and he would be swept into the water-ways like a cork +in a sluice.</p> + +<p>When all but a few inches of water had run off, and it was deep only in +the lee scuppers, we perceived a knot of men away aft wedged between +the bitts and the rail not far from the cabin bulkhead, entangled in a +fearful snarl of gear. So tightly were they packed away that at first +it seemed as though there were only two men there; but one by one they +crawled apart till three half-drowned sailors sat wabbling on the deck, +and then we saw that another luckless creature was lying prone in the +scuppers. Slowly and painfully he got his legs under him, and, waiting +for a lurch, with an effort reached his feet. It was Mr. Rarx, one of +the most powerful men on board, and he was gasping for breath. It seems +that they had all been swept aft together, and all were badly used up, +especially Mr. Rarx, who<span class="pagenum" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</span> formed the base of the wedge. He says that he +was completely under water for a good deal more than a minute.</p> + +<p>We are beginning to regard deep-water sailors as little short of +heroes. Indeed, they seem to me far more valiant than the battalions +of soldiery that are hurled nowadays against little bands of savages. +From 50° to 50° they and the dark cavern in which they live are soaking +wet; they have no time to change their clothes, and no dry garments to +put on if they had, for often, no sooner have the watch below kicked +off their boots, actually filled to the brim with salt-water, than +comes the cry, “All hands reef the maintop-sail,” and when that is +done, “Haul up the main-sail” rings out, and there are two hours gone +from their watch below. There is no such thing as throwing off their +coats or even oil-skins when they turn in; nor would it be advisable +in a leaky forecastle like this, with half an inch of water on the +floor shooting up in their faces. Yet look at these men as they haul +on the braces in a gale of wind, hardly able to keep their feet. Never +a word of complaint at the weather have I heard yet. Calm and unmoved +in the storms of spray and snow, they sing out as heartily as ever, +grin good-naturedly up at the poop where we are standing dry and +comfortable, and face the crest of a sea that rattles against them as +if it were a summer shower. The more we see of forecastle life the more +difficult is it to understand why men ever ship before the mast for a +Cape Horn voyage.</p> + +<p>It is pleasant to think that that wretched man Goggins was washing +about in his room, too,—pleasant, because he continues to drive and +haze the men down here when they are striving to do their utmost under +such conditions. When he awoke last night in the middle watch he found +several inches of water on the floor of his room, and he is wondering +where it came from. Indeed, we had a shower-bath ourselves last night, +for part of a sea fell on the poop,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</span> ran aft against the wheel-house +when the bows rose and then recoiled into our after-window, which was +open, drenching that portion of our room.</p> + +<p>Steam is kept up continuously in the donkey-boiler now, as the men +are getting pretty well used up from exposure and the immense amount +of making and shortening of sail that goes on continuously. Captain +Scruggs believes in taking every single point of advantage in the wind, +and shakes out a reef at the least indication of a lull, each time, of +course, necessitating the mastheading of the yard; though eventually +even he realized that the men were wearing out, and now the donkey does +all the heavy hoisting. Many people think that the engine does all the +trimming of yards, etc., during a voyage, but with the exception of the +passage of the Horn, it is seldom ever in use at sea, and never for +sail-trimming. The chief use to which a donkey is put is in loading and +discharging when in port and heaving in the anchor.</p> + +<p>Well, the wind now, at 3 <span class="allsmcap">P.M.</span>, is at west, force 8, and we +have set a reefed maintop-sail and spencer. We have drifted about +southeast by east true since yesterday, sometimes hove to, sometimes +headreaching through a heavy sea. The elements are somewhat more +placid, and I must not bring this day’s journal to a close without +extolling my wife’s bravery during the foul weather, for her courage +was remarkable. Only those who have been to sea in a sailing ship whose +main-deck is but seven feet above the water can appreciate what a whole +gale of wind means under such circumstances. Latitude, 57° south; +longitude, 65° 45′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">July 18</span></p> + +<p>Land was reported on the weather-beam this afternoon. We think that it +is Barneveld Island, about thirty miles<span class="pagenum" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</span> northeast of Cape Horn, and +it bore, when first sighted, northwest. We didn’t do anything at all +during the last twenty-four hours but seesaw up and down, north and +southeast, with the wind at southwest, and we were surprised by a calm +last night from six until twelve o’clock, with a comparatively high +thermometer,—41° at the latter hour,—so that the skipper looked for a +northerly wind during this morning. But no such luck for us; daylight +saw us under a reefed maintop-sail (we had set the main-top-gallant at +midnight) with a moderate gale from the westward, though the sea was +quite smooth. We have entirely lost the long southwesterly roll, and it +is astonishing how that swell does go down if you are only a little to +the eastward of the Cape. For instance, suppose a vessel to be in 57° +south and 68° west, she is almost certain to have this big heave; but +if in 66° west and the same latitude she will be almost entirely free +from it; at least, this has been our experience.</p> + +<p>Great agitation pervaded the ship aft to-day when the discovery was +made that the pumps had not been working properly for twenty-four +hours. In heavy weather the “Higgins” has to be pumped out every two +hours on account of a leak near the rudder-head, although the majority +of wooden sailing vessels have to man the pumps every watch in a +seaway, for they all leak in bad weather. Something was wrong with the +plunger, I believe, and the pumps have been useless for a whole day, +unknown to any one, which in itself seems remarkable, though I must say +that the decks have been so full of water that it has been very hard +to tell whether a stream was coming up from below or not. Therefore +both men and donkey have been alternately pumping without result, and +when the carpenter sounded the well this noon, lo! there were two and a +half feet of water in the vessel, which means nearly twenty<span class="pagenum" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</span> thousand +gallons, or about six hundred barrels. By using both sides of the +pumps, however, the engine had them sucking in an hour, doing sixty +revolutions to the minute. There was a violent scene, though, when the +old man learned of the affair, and a still more turbulent half-hour +followed while the plunger was being repaired.</p> + +<p>Here, in the bad, wet weather, for it has been raining for forty-eight +hours, this ship is extremely uncomfortable and disagreeable below, +and the most slovenly one that I have ever seen. To begin with, it +is very dark, for the skylights are absurdly small, and boards have +to be secured on their weather-sides to prevent a repetition of the +river Plate incident, so that the gloom of the interior is that of +a hole in the ground. However, this doesn’t count, for we expected +it. The after-cabin is a rather unpleasant spot, by reason of a +so’wester or two, a dripping black oil-skin, several pair of wet +woollen wrist-protectors, a few greasy magazines, a chart or two, and a +couple of camp-chairs all continually sliding about the floor, making +locomotion an extremely hazardous undertaking. But, upon approaching +the forward or dining cabin, a spectacle meets the eye which would +shake the heart of the stoutest landsman. In the forward end, in a +recess, stands the stove, stayed with iron rods; while surrounding it +on three sides is a permanent aggregation of various objectionable +articles, perfectly appalling. The heater is completely smothered at +all times in ancient, wet garments of the skipper’s, almost in a state +of fermentation, suspended on wires, so that the stove can hardly be +seen. At dinner to-day the following disreputable articles of clothing +hung before the fire, dank and mildewed: two pairs of aged trousers, +two waist-coats, three coats, one overcoat, two mufflers, one pair of +knitted gloves, one handkerchief, and two pairs of socks. From these +garments there issued a peculiarly<span class="pagenum" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</span> obnoxious, thin steam, through +which a yellow lamp glowed unhealthily.</p> + +<p>Below, at the base of the stove, and surrounding it as with a +chevaux-de-frise, were two pairs of rubber boots, ditto leather shoes, +ditto felt slippers for boots, two dishes filled with the cat’s +half-devoured food, no one knows how old, a wash-tub half filled with +soaking sheets, a bucket, and a wooden box nearly full of ashes, upon +which reposed a coffee-pot. And when to all this is added the humidity +of this region, which is so dense that moisture condenses on the walls, +and the fact that the mizzen-mast-coat leaks, covering several square +feet of the floor with water, it will be conceded that the interior of +this vessel is distinctly disreputable. Indeed, we never attempt to sit +and read anywhere else than in our own room. Nor are the dishes what +they should be, and I often find a clot of coagulated soup in the ladle +from yesterday’s repast; this latter is, of course, the fault of the +steward, though the best of servants will grow careless if they are not +watched.</p> + +<p>Then the mate is extremely unclean, so much so that even Mr. Rarx said +a day or two ago that he was the dirtiest man whom he had even seen +in a ship’s cabin. He never washes his face and hands to come to the +table, both of which are streaked with soot, lard oil, and goodness +knows what else. The captain is considerably better in this respect, +but his temper seems to be more uncontrollable than ever, and he shouts +at the steward and Sammie as though they were on the foretop-sail-yard +in a gale of wind. He seems to consider it a personal affront every +time that the men come aft on Saturday nights to buy things from the +slop-chest, which he throws at them with scant ceremony. Last night +“Long John” Pettersen asked him for a pair of No. 10 rubber boots in +his cowed,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</span> frightened way. “I ain’t got no tens,” cried the skipper; +“here’s nines; take ’em and get out”; and he cast the boots at John, +who promptly dodged, and they struck the stove with a great, clattering +din.</p> + +<p>I will, no doubt, be accused of inhumanity in taking my wife to sea in +such a vessel as this, but we had not the least notion that she would +prove so different from what we supposed her to be, and few persons +would suspect that such things would occur aboard of a ship which +looked so neat and trim in the New York docks. Our previous experience +at sea, we have since discovered, was not of any use to us as a guide +as to what we might expect here. Indeed, in the worst weather off the +Cape of Good Hope the “Mandalore’s” cabin, with its brightly polished +open-grate and shining bird’s-eye maple panelling, would not have +been discreditable to a well-found yacht. Latitude, 56° 14′ south; +longitude, 66° west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">July 19</span></p> + +<p>Hail, mighty sun! Welcome, radiant, glorious monarch! We saw the +luminous orb for ten minutes at mid-day, marking an epoch, for events +off Cape Horn date from the last time that the sun was seen. When day +broke this morning, behold! the sky was clear and everything presaged +at least two hours of bright sunshine. No sooner, however, did the orb +show signs of appearing above the horizon than a cloud-bank arose in +the west which proved to be the mother of a procession of squalls which +covered the sky for the rest of the day, bar a few minutes at noon. But +how we did rejoice for even a glimpse of the heavenly body! For days +we had dwelt in darkness and twilight, and when we caught sight of the +golden disk again it was like the face of an old friend. No one who +has not experienced it can imagine what the gloom of Cape Horn is like +even at<span class="pagenum" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</span> mid-day. It has doubtless somewhat the effect of the darkness +of the Polar seas, which, it is said, kills more men than frost and +starvation. Practically, throughout the year the heavens in this region +are wrapped up in a pall of cloud so dense and low as to feel like an +increased atmospheric pressure; and unless one’s spirits are as elastic +as rubber the mind must succumb to the dreary influence of this endless +waste of gray ocean. It is oppressive beyond the power of words; and so +great is the solitude that it is difficult to believe that we are still +on the earth and not floating upon the ocean of another planet.</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“So lonely ’twas, that God himself</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Scarce seemed there to be.”</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>The sun’s altitude at noon was only 8° 42′, so that he was only about +sixteen diameters above the horizon; but notwithstanding, all hands +hailed him with glad pæans, and deep and mournful was the wailing +when he withdrew. At eleven o’clock, while we were reading below, +the skipper called down to know if we didn’t want to see a regular +old-fashioned squall. So up we went, and upon issuing from the +companion-way were almost literally blown over by a heavy gust. The +ship was hove down till the sea flowed over the lee rail thick and +smooth and dark, like the water on the verge of a cataract; the wind +howled and screeched overhead; spray fell in blinding sheets; while +the snow was positively overpowering and almost smothered us when we +looked to windward. The ship for some time had dragged a double-reefed +maintop-sail, and it was every stitch that she could stand. All +through the day we were bombarded by these squalls, and by three in +the afternoon the wind had once more increased to a fresh gale, with a +wicked, breaking sea which frequently broke on the poop itself.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</span></p> + +<p>How little, how pitifully little departure we made in the last week! +On Tuesday, six days ago, we rounded Cape St. John, and now we are +only a degree farther west! I should think it <i>was</i> hard to make +westing off the Horn. Call it forty miles in a week, for the degrees +of longitude are scarcely thirty-five miles long in this latitude. Six +miles of westing a day! Speaking of the length of degrees, though, it +is remarkable how much farther south of the line the Horn seems (56° +south) than 56° north seems north of it. For instance, the fifty-sixth +northerly parallel passes between Edinburgh and Glasgow, and is not +very far north of Hamburg; yet but few persons would suppose that, +roughly speaking, these cities were in the same relative latitude as +the southern extremity of South America.</p> + +<p>Last evening, just before dark, a sail was sighted about ten miles +to leeward, and was there still this morning. It was a ship, and we +conjectured that she was the “Dowes” until the glasses showed that she +had a standing spanker-gaff, which made her a foreigner. Perhaps she is +the demon Frenchman; may she approach no nearer.</p> + +<p>One of the men at the wheel, Jack Michaels, whispered to me this +morning, “Say, was that land the Diego Ramirez we saw yesterday?” +And when told that we were still east of Cape Horn, the poor fellow +ejaculated, “Oh, my God!” so earnestly and sorrowfully that it spoke +whole volumes for what the men are suffering in the leaky forecastle. +Two men are constantly at the wheel now, and even when the tiller is +lashed and we are hove to, the law compels one man to stand with his +hands on the spokes as though still steering, so as to be ready in case +of accident. Well, it looks as though we were going to have a worse +night than ever for sleeping; last night we got only three hours of +rest. Latitude, 56° 54′ south; longitude, 65° west.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</span></p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">July 20</span></p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“The ship drove fast, loud roared the blast,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And southward aye we fled.”</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>It came on to blow very hard indeed yesterday afternoon at three +o’clock, just as we had finished writing, and at four it became +necessary to haul up the main-sail and foresail, though both were +reefed. When the skipper sung out, “Clew up the main-sail,” I think +that it was blowing harder than we ever saw it at sea. The captain +said that there was more wind the other day in sight of Cape Horn; +but I think that this was only to contradict. Whether or no, it blew +a fearful gale, though the full strength didn’t last more than three +hours, with, for a while, the worst snow and hail that we have had yet. +The ocean seethed; big seas swept the decks fore and aft like cataracts +every five minutes, and the ship, with nothing showing but the lower +topsails, was bowed down before the blasts like a palm-tree in a +hurricane. We thought that we were surely going to lose the main-sail +through the fault of the wretched mate, who is of no use whatever in +bad weather. It is necessary to observe extreme caution in hauling up +any of the courses in a gale of wind, for the tack and sheet must be +eased off just so, in order that both they and the clew-garnets shall +be perfectly taut until the clews are right up to the yard. If not, the +chance of losing the sails is exceedingly good. Well, the miserable +man, in the midst of a tearing puff, let the main-tack get away from +him. Instantly there arose a frightful slatting, and we expected to +see the strong, new canvas whipped into ribbons, while the great, +ninety-foot mainyard buckled and bent almost like a coach-whip. I hope +never to witness such a sight again. The old man’s state while this was +going on must be left to the imagination; and when a sea swept over +the side, carrying almost every man on the clew-garnets and buntlines +into the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</span> scuppers, we feared that his reason was going. After a hard +struggle, though, the gaskets were put on the main-sail, and then the +foresail had to come in. Here the mate, very properly, found something +else to do, and Mr. Rarx, calm and perfect master of himself, slacked +away the tack first; and when the weather-side had been hauled up, he +did the same with the sheet, without the least show of exertion; he is +a splendid seaman.</p> + +<p>At this moment I stepped into the wheel-house to look at the aneroid, +and found the needle actually jumping back and forth from 29.10 to +29.20, with a quick jerk like the second-hand of a clock. This is +known as “pumping” when observed in a mercurial barometer, and occurs +most frequently during cyclones, the cause being sudden changes in the +velocity, and, consequently, force, of the wind. It is interesting +to note that if a barometer is hung against a wall where the wind +will blow steadily upon it at a rate of about thirty feet per second +the height of the barometer is perceptibly increased. Once before we +observed this pumping of the barometer, which happened on the P. and O. +steamer “Khedive,” in the Bay of Biscay, when the glass stood at 28.64. +This is, of course, a very low reading, but it is often eclipsed during +tropical cyclones; indeed, not long ago the British steamer “Foreland,” +at New York, from Hull, reported the barometer at 28.10 to the eastward +of the Banks during a January passage.</p> + +<p>At five yesterday afternoon the force of the wind was greatest, and +the surface of the ocean smoked, and we couldn’t see the jib-boom for +the spume, which flew through the air like steam; yet in the very eye +of the storm the gay little Cape pigeons darted about like sparrows +in a summer shower. They seemed to find a deal to eat on the surface, +and their method of feeding was this: At the instant that an unusually +heavy sea passed they would swoop<span class="pagenum" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</span> down into the hollow where it was +almost calm, snatch a few mouthfuls of whatever they found, and as +the next huge sea rushed at them, at the very second before they were +buried in the hissing crest, they extended their wings to the utmost, +the wind struck beneath them, and without any perceptible effort they +rose against the gale, only to drop again in a few moments, and repeat +the operation. It was really very pretty manœuvering, and compelled +admiration at the ease and certainty with which the little creatures +handled themselves even in the heaviest gusts.</p> + +<p>Alas, the poor sailors! They have been continuously wet now for more +than ten days. It is true that from 8 <span class="allsmcap">A.M.</span> till eight in the +evening there is a fire burning in a small stove in the forecastle; +but the atmosphere is so extremely humid that the heat doesn’t seem to +affect the forecastle or the men’s clothes. Indeed, it is a grewsome +sight to look into that apartment as I did the other night at seven +o’clock. The port watch were below lying in their bunks with faces +toward the stove, which was all but concealed by dripping, steaming +garments swinging madly in the heavy rolls, water was splashing high up +on the grimy walls from the floor, while a dense, rank vapor pervaded +the place, through which the stove glowed dully, like a headlight +in a fog. Many of the men are now afflicted with the most grievous +perhaps of all the ills with which sailors are cursed in cold, bad +weather,—the dreaded sea-boils. These harassing sores are due to the +friction of oil-skins and other clothes upon the wrists and neck, +continually drenched with salt-water, though the bad condition of +sailors’ blood generally is doubtless responsible for the dreadful +state of the wrists of the sufferers. It is singular that mere friction +combined with cold sea-water should produce such results. Sea-boils or +salt-water-boils, as they are sometimes called, are exquisitely painful +and very sensitive<span class="pagenum" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</span> to any rubbing, and they must be bandaged and +poulticed until it is time for the lancing, upon which a sort of core, +like a short, thick piece of sinew, is laid bare, which must be seized +and plucked out. Two of these boils as large as plums will lay a man +up; and any attempt to work him hard generally results in a high fever +and his bunk for several days. Imagine what the suffering of sailors +must be off Cape Horn when these boils are added to fatigue, cold, loss +of sleep from frequent calls of all hands, and to the lethargy that +comes from exposure. I repeat again, why do men ship before the mast? +There are other things to do, and even breaking stones on a highway is +to my mind infinitely preferable. Notwithstanding everything said to +the contrary, the life of a Cape Horn foremast hand is the life of a +beast. It is hard, wearing, and bitter beyond words; and when are added +the kicks and the blows from belaying-pins and knuckle-dusters that the +men are usually served with on American ships by way of dessert, it +is difficult to believe that human beings can survive such privations +and sufferings. Poor fellows! They stumble about the decks with drawn, +haggard faces and two or three with staring eyes. We watched one this +forenoon (it was Louis Eckers) trying to put a watch-tackle strop on +the lee lower maintop-sail-brace; the job amounted to nothing more than +standing on the bitts and twisting a bit of rope around the brace; but +so weak and stiffened was he that another man had to be called in his +stead. Some of the younger fellows are still in pretty good condition, +such as Broadhead, Charley, and Olsen; but most of the older men are +practically half dead. I think the most remarkable of all of a sailor’s +characteristics is the rapidity with which they forget their hardships; +for let Jack get up into the balmy Trades again and all of his misery +and pain vanish, the memory of what he has but<span class="pagenum" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</span> just endured fades +away, and when he has been ashore for a week at the end of the voyage, +he is quite ready again to face the snow-thickened gales of Cape Horn.</p> + +<p>All hopes of a rapid passage have now been abandoned, for we have been +ten weeks at sea to-day and are not yet around Cape Horn. It will be +recalled that we were in the longitude of the Cape a few days ago, but +heaven only knows when we can make up what we have lost since then. +Our distance east of the Horn now is not more than seventy-five miles, +and it does seem remarkable that we cannot make those few miles of +westing; and we see now why all the sailing directions say, “Whatever +you do, <i>make westing! make westing!</i>” Even though the wind is at +southwest, as we have had it almost constantly, one would think that by +standing well to the southward a ship could get a lay up past the Cape; +but what with a two-knot easterly current, two points of leeway, and +22° of easterly variation, not to mention her being seven points off +the wind under such short canvas, it is actually impossible. A yacht +might do it, for she could go to windward under a storm-try-sail to an +appreciable extent; but if a square-rigger holds her own and makes no +easting on the <i>port</i> tack with the wind blowing hard from the +southwest off Cape Horn, she is doing very well.</p> + +<p>At five this morning the wind backed to south and hope glowed warm in +the hearts of the men; but it didn’t take it long to shift back again +to its old quarter, between southwest and west-southwest, and the old +man now makes no bones about our being real <i>bona fide</i> Jonahs. +It is growing colder, too, the noon temperature being 31°, though no +lower at night, but the wind is as cutting and clammy and dank as the +breath of an iceberg. Some ship-masters, on account of the prolonged +head gales and seas of Cape Horn, prefer the Good Hope voyage when +bound from North<span class="pagenum" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</span> Atlantic ports to California or British Columbia; +but while the winds are fair in the Southern Ocean on this course, the +distance is so much greater that it is doubtful whether or not there is +any advantage in it. The latest example is the case of the British ship +“Wasdale,” which reached San Francisco not very long ago, one hundred +and sixty-five days from London <i>via</i> Good Hope, having sailed the +enormous distance of twenty-four thousand five hundred and twenty-six +miles; the Horn voyage averages three weeks less in time than the above +and six thousand miles less in distance. The “Wasdale” must be a smart +ship to cover nearly twenty-five thousand miles in that time.</p> + +<p>It seems very odd that we have as yet met no homeward-bounders, as +we have been several times right in their track; the skipper says, +however, that there are doubtless a dozen vessels within a radius +of fifty miles, all bound to the westward. Latitude, 57° 25′ south; +longitude, 60° 5′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">July 21</span></p> + +<p>“Land close aboard on the lee-quarter, sir,” was the startling +information that the mate called down the companion-way about daylight, +as we sat down to breakfast this morning. It didn’t take the captain +more than three or four seconds to reach the deck, and we heard him +cry savagely, “All hands wear ship; lively now, lively.” And none +too soon, for there on the lee beam lay Hermite Island only three +or four miles away. This is one of a cluster known as the Hermite +Islands, being seven in number altogether; they form the culminating +group of the Tierra del Fuegian archipelago, of which Cape Horn is +the southernmost. We must have made more westing than the captain had +estimated, for he had just remarked that we ought to see the Horn +again at nine o’clock. Of course we wore as quickly as the stiffened +arms of the men would permit, and for quite<span class="pagenum" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</span> a long while, in a dismal +rain, we ran down parallel with these dreary shores, on which we would +have struck had daylight been a couple of hours later. If our position +of yesterday wasn’t a false one, we did phenomenally well during the +past twenty-four hours, for the land that we first saw this morning, +and which the skipper recognized at once, is eighty miles west of +yesterday’s position. But, good gracious! we were at noon to-day +within eight miles of where we were last Friday in the heavy gale! The +latitude was exactly the same and we were eight miles farther west. +Eight miles in five days. How does that sound? And every day of it +fight, fight, fight against head-winds varying from a moderate to a +whole gale. In truth, the famous Cape weather is being administered in +heroic doses. Personally, I don’t mind it in the least; weeks or even +months of it, if necessary, would be quite immaterial to me; but the +interior of the cabin is so abominably uncomfortable for my wife, bar +our own room, that for this reason I want to get out of it as quickly +as possible. This gloomy weather, too, is dreadfully trying for her, as +it is too dark to read below without a lamp at even the brightest part +of the day.</p> + +<p>At ten we opened out Cape Spencer, a magnificent headland at the +southern end of Hermite Island, and an hour later sighted Horn Island +for the second time, bearing northeast true, distant eighteen miles. +It was the first really good look we had had at the Horn, and the +world-famous rock presented quite a formidable appearance, being five +hundred feet in height, though lacking the majestic dignity of Cape +Spencer, which lies twenty-five miles west-northwest of it. Indeed, +there is no particular landmark about it to cause Horn Island to stand +forth from the surrounding crags. Many people imagine that the Cape +was so called from its resemblance to a horn, but this is a mistake. +The proper name is Cape Hoorn, which was given<span class="pagenum" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</span> it in 1616 by the +Dutch navigator Schouten, in honor of his native town in Flanders. On +the other hand, False Cape Horn, about fifty miles northwest of the +true cape, at the extremity of Hardy Peninsula, bears a remarkable +likeness to an inverted curved cornucopia, and also a resemblance to +the fantastic Cape Split in the Bay of Fundy, at the entrance to the +Minas Basin. It was our cherished desire to photograph Horn Island, but +we were prevented by the disadvantageous conditions; so far as known, +it has been photographed but once, and that by Captain Rivers of the +American ship “A. G. Ropes,” who, a short time since, when bound to the +westward, sailed boldly in to within a few miles and, during a bright +spell of weather, was enabled to obtain a photograph of the great Cape.</p> + +<p>This is the second time that we have been west of the Horn, if only a +few miles, and here we go back again to the eastward on the starboard +tack, with the wind a strong breeze from southwest by south. We are +steering about south-southeast and the variation makes it south, which +would be passable were it not for the leeway and current, so that, in +spite of the variation, south-southeast is our actual course. Good-by +for a few days, friend Horn; perhaps we’ll pay you another visit in a +week or so. Indeed, the most satisfactory manner of ascertaining one’s +exact position down here after a week or two of gales and dark weather +is to set out and look for Cape Horn, which will no doubt be found +in two or three days, take a fresh departure from it, and then away +south again. This is actually what we have been doing, only we missed +the Cape this last time, but found an equally satisfactory landmark +in Spencer; if a ship-master can calculate his longitude to within a +degree (about thirty-five miles) in the midst of all these currents, +he is a shrewd navigator. By the way, what appropriate names have been +given to various<span class="pagenum" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</span> portions of wild and comfortless Tierra del Fuego; on +the chart now before me appear such appellations peculiarly distinctive +of this region: Last Hope Inlet, Desolation Island, Dislocation Harbor, +Obstruction Sound, Famine Reach, Deceit Rocks.</p> + +<p>Rain, rain; snow, snow; hail, hail. No end of it in sight. The aneroid +has risen to 30 inches, which, with an increase of nine degrees in +the temperature, would indicate a northerly wind; but we have long +since given up hoping for such good luck. At 1.30 this afternoon we +saw the pale sun at an altitude of about seven degrees for a moment, +but he quickly drew over his face the cowl of nimbus cloud, as though +terrified at the sight of Cape Horn. However, like the Ancient Mariner, +“we hailed it in God’s name,” and were comforted at knowing that the +orb is still in existence.</p> + +<p>Captain Scruggs and the mate often now have very turbulent and +passionate arguments, not to say quarrels, at meals. It is apparently +impossible for the mate to get his reckoning right or anywhere near +right, and to-day when the dinner-bell had clanged through the cabin, +the skipper asked him suddenly and angrily what his longitude was. Mr. +Goggins, after emptying his grimy vest-pockets of bits of tobacco, +twine, and infinitesimal pencils, quakingly produced a morsel of +ragged, dirty brown paper, upon which appeared a variety of rare +and hitherto unknown characters, which he twisted and turned at +inconceivable angles, with horrible facial contortions. There was a +dead, portentous silence, “Well, sir?” rapped out the skipper “I—I—I, +er—er, about 71° 22′, sir.”</p> + +<p>“About 71° 22′, eh? That’s your idea of the ship’s position, is it? +Just let me tell you that this has gone far enough. Do you understand? +How in the devil’s name can you make it 71° with Cape Spencer right +under your<span class="pagenum" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</span> nose? Don’t you know enough yet to take a new departure +from a landmark? I did think you had enough sense for that, but I see I +was wrong,” etc., etc.</p> + +<p>They argue, too, about the most trivial affairs, during which the +skipper all but blows the skylights off with his hurricane voice. Later +on, at dinner to-day, they quarrelled about the position of a certain +San Francisco restaurant. The old man swore that it wasn’t on Polk +Street. Then they went at each other quite savagely, but gradually +calmed down, and we thought it was all over, when suddenly the skipper +hammered on the table with his fist, and shouted, “That restaurant’s +no more on Polk Street than this huckleberry pie’s a blueberry; I mean +raspberry.” And he was so vexed at his simple little mistake that he +thundered at the boy Sammie, who stands shuddering in the pantry during +meals, “You, Sam, get some buckets of salt-water and wrench out that +bath-tub; and if you’re longer than ten minutes, damme if I don’t break +you all to <span class="allsmcap">PIECES</span>.” Sammie has a woful time of it on board; +for, besides doing all conceivable sorts of dirty work, he is the butt +of the ship’s company, teased beyond endurance by the men, and kicked +and pounded mercilessly by both mates. Probably his most disagreeable +and anxious moments are passed in the pantry while we are at meals. +His dread of the old man is so intense that in his awful presence he +is little better than a lunatic. While he is in the pantry he dwells +in terror of a summons to the table; and when “You, Sam!” finally does +come crashing forth, and he reaches the captain’s side in a single +bound, it irritates this singular man excessively. Then, of course, +the mate must needs rake up some fancied grievance against the unhappy +lad, who is immensely relieved when he is ordered in disgrace from +the dining-room. The other day the skipper told him, in my wife’s<span class="pagenum" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</span> +presence, that he was not fit to carry guts to a bear. It seemed to us +that that was exactly what he was doing, especially as he had a dish +of tongues and sounds in his hand at the moment, which to me is the +most objectionable of all sea-food; it’s worse than burgoo and ham-fat. +Latitude, 56° 12′ south; longitude, 67° 32′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">July 22</span></p> + +<p>Wore round at eight this morning, and stood north and west once more on +the port tack, as the wind backed into the southward and allowed us to +come up to west-northwest by compass, or northwest by west true, which +is not bad. We made so little to the good, though, in the twenty-four +hours that it cannot be said that we are doing anything more than +waltzing up and down the sixty-seventh meridian. We have gone through +the water fast enough, but not in the right direction; for forty-eight +hours now we have been under single-reefed topsails, and if a ship can +carry that canvas she will do five or six knots an hour even in a heavy +sea. A single reef in the topsails means generally whole main-sail and +foresail, which is enough to send a vessel ahead at a good rate. When +the main-sail is reefed or hauled up, though, a ship goes to leeward +nearly as fast as she goes ahead.</p> + +<p>We sped over the water then at quite a respectable gait, and, in trying +to make a little westing, if the skipper is driving the ship for all +she’s worth, for both wind and sea are heavy, no man can blame him. +The men continue to grow worse and worse, and there are not six in the +forecastle who do not show the effects of exposure, chilblains and +sea-boils. The latter have increased shockingly; three more men are +down with them, Coleman, Pettersen, and Eckers. Coleman this morning +showed me two dreadful-looking wrists; the left one was particularly +bad, with<span class="pagenum" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</span> a deep rent or cavity in the flesh itself that a silver +dollar would not cover; not bleeding, but mortifying and sloughing +terribly, presenting a sickening spectacle. Coleman says that some of +the others are a good deal worse than he is. Hapless creatures! how +they manage to do any work at all with these wounds is difficult to +understand. Let them be bandaged ever so tightly and what will it avail +in the rough work? The bandages soon work loose, and there is the bare, +raw flesh exposed to the salt-water and the rubbing of their sleeves. +If Job had sea-boils, it would be safe betting that they were the worst +afflictions that he had. Why will not sailors take care of themselves +ashore and obviate to a certain extent such suffering as they undergo +off Cape Horn? The youngest and healthiest of our men, those with +clear skins, do not seem to suffer much with these boils; and they say +that another safeguard to a certain degree against them is to dry the +wrists as much as possible before turning in. Bad food, though, with a +preponderance of salt meat, will soon play havoc with the blood of the +stoutest man; and while there seems to be a fairly good variety of food +on the “Higgins” for the crew, yet the majority of sailors on Yankee +ships are fed chiefly on wretched, scurvy-breeding food. The name +that American ships used to bear thirty and forty years ago for the +superlatively good rations that the men got, is by no means deserved +at the present day by the majority of our own deep-water ships. Many +are the tales of starvation told by men arriving on Yankee ships at +San Francisco in these days; I mention San Francisco particularly, as +that port has until very lately sustained the reputation of withholding +justice from sailors to a remarkable extent. As to the stories of +foremast hands lying on the witness-stands in court when defending +themselves, I am convinced it is generally not so. We have seen several +acts committed<span class="pagenum" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</span> by the mates aboard this vessel against the sailors +which would be regarded as entirely untrue by a justice if told by a +seaman. In the great majority of cases the word of a bucko mate is +taken in court in preference to the sailor’s, and in this way there is +an inconceivable amount of injustice done to the latter. For instance, +there are here at least a dozen men in the forecastle the word of any +one of whom I would unhesitatingly believe rather than that of either +of the mates. Captain Scruggs appears to be, and I believe he is, an +entirely truthful man; but as for Goggins, he would lie for a worn-out +chew of tobacco (he often tells monstrous falsehoods to the skipper +concerning the men); and even Mr. Rarx must come under the same ban.</p> + +<p>It seems to me that this ship makes a great deal of water. Twice in +every watch, night and day, since we have been south of 50°, the +ship has had to be pumped out; and in twelve hours yesterday, when +the wretched pumps broke down again, we made twenty-eight inches of +water. It is all very fine to say that wooden ships are lighter in bad +weather than iron ones, and to allude to the latter as diving-bells, +but this ship is wetter than the iron “Mandalore” was running before a +heavy sea, and the latter possessed the inestimable advantage of never +leaking even when driven into a high head-sea.</p> + +<p>Captain Scruggs was in a state of mind when, after wearing round on +the port tack this morning, he found that we couldn’t head up much +better than north true. Of course, we had the customary eruption +during the manœuvre, and he raged quite furiously at the helmsmen, +who, unfortunately, were the two dullest men in the ship—Pettersen +and Eckers. As I say, the captain wrought himself into wild gusts of +passion, and when he found the ship off to north-northwest he had +apparently exhausted all methods for easing his mind. But we reckoned +without our skipper,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</span> being a man of much resource, and he conceived +a brilliant plan. After standing motionless and speechless for a full +minute he strode to the weather wheel-house door, tore it open, and +crash! slammed it to. Again, another bang, worse than the first. Once +more a great crashing rent the air that shook the structure, while the +old man ground his teeth and worked his brush-like eyebrows as though +they were on a string, as he stamped over to leeward, muttering to +himself and shaking all over. It was a mirth-compelling scene.</p> + +<p>A little anecdote will show him in yet another phase: we asked him, a +day or two ago, who was the best helmsman in the ship, and he replied, +waspishly, “There hain’t no best among ’em; they’re all d—— bad; +fed like kings, and this is what you get.” Latitude, 57° 30′ south; +longitude, 67° west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">July 23</span></p> + +<p>At eleven o’clock last night we heard the rasping voice of old Goggins +sing out, “Land ahead!” The captain turned out at once (he goes to +bed now at seven, and sleeps till midnight if the weather isn’t too +outrageous), and immediately ordered the ship on the other tack; +and, after we had come around, three pinnacles of rock were seen +standing sharply up out of the sea, for the night wasn’t a very dark +one. They were the Diego Ramirez Rocks, which, lying eighteen marine +leagues southwest of Cape Horn, form unquestionably the most dangerous +obstruction in the entire Southern Ocean, rearing their jagged peaks +vertically out of a depth of two hundred fathoms, right in the track +of westward-bound ships. If the weather is thick and dark, there is +nothing to apprise the mariner of their proximity, even if he keeps the +lead going, until the thunder of what is perhaps the most tremendous +surf in the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</span> world warns him, too late, that he is within hailing +distance of the dreaded Diego Ramirez. A crash, a great shout, and lo! +a stately ship and her company are effaced in a moment of time, a few +bits of timber cast upon the shore by those vast surges of the South +Pacific being all that remains of what was one of man’s most beautiful +works, a full-rigged ship.</p> + +<p>The last vessel to go ashore on these rocks was the American ship +“Arabia”; and, although she went to pieces immediately, all of her crew +miraculously escaped and were taken off by another vessel and landed +at Montevideo. Ship-masters call the rocks ‘Dyeego Rammerreez’, though +they inconsistently pronounce San Diego as it ought to be,—Deeaigo. +Why is it, I wonder, that this land is always spoken of as being +eighteen marine leagues from Cape Horn? Why not say fifty-four miles. +Yet all ocean directories say that they are eighteen marine leagues +from the Horn, though all other distances are given in miles.</p> + +<p>We would really have passed several miles to leeward of the rocks if +we had kept on, but no ship-master will ever take any chances with +them; however, we are much elated at finding ourselves an appreciable +distance to the westward of the Cape. Throughout the day we have been +fanning along under a main-royal! But that’s the way of this region. +Yesterday morning under reefed topsails; this morning courtesying +quietly along over an almost smooth sea, bar the southwesterly swell.</p> + +<p>A few minutes ago, at about two o’clock, we witnessed another +exhibition of what is called “discipline” on American ships, but +what is elsewhere known as brutality. These are the facts: After +dinner a man was sent down into the lazarette to bring up a barrel +of split pease; it was the luckless Swede, Brün. This man, who is +not particularly strong at best, and is now in very bad shape, found +great<span class="pagenum" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</span> difficulty in shoving the barrel, which seemed to weigh about +one hundred and fifty pounds, up the lazarette hatch-way; and care +must then be exercised never to allow the chimes of a barrel to touch +the deck, as it would leave a scar. Brün finally got the barrel clear +of the hatch and was rolling it flat along the poop, when the mate, +looking as sour as lime-juice, came hobbling along the alley-way and, +pointing to some old marks in the deck, said, “What d’you do that +for?” Now, I am perfectly sure that Brün had not made those marks, and +so was the mate; but Goggins was in one of his snarling moods, and +without further ado he applied his boot to Brün’s person with such +severity that he fell sprawling over the barrel, which then rolled over +to leeward and struck the rail with a loud crack. Without a word, or +even a look, the man gathered himself up, and, grasping the barrel, +continued on his way, only remarking, “I’m doing the best I can, +sair,” in the weak, precise tones of a foreigner speaking English. +“What! answerin’ back?” yelled Goggins. “Who learned yer that, eh?” +and running up to Brün, he seized him fiercely by the throat with his +left hand and then drove his right fist with full force into the man’s +face. The latter staggered and fell backward half over the rail into +the lanyards of the mizzen-shrouds, where he remained some moments +before he came to; and then, well knowing that he would have been +pounded almost to death with any handy weapon if he so much as opened +his mouth again, he once more started forward with the barrel. This is +a nice state of affairs when men in the merchant service of the United +States are suffered to be beaten and kicked into insensibility, and +in some cases actually killed at the hands of brutal, savage mates. +Before we sailed in this ship I had often heard that sailors under the +stars and stripes underwent the most cruel punishments, in many cases +of so<span class="pagenum" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</span> unusual and low a description as to preclude mention in these +pages, but I hardly believed it. Now, however, after knowing how Yankee +ships are run and that such brutes as Goggins sail as mates in them, +it is my opinion, and that of my wife also, who understands sailors, +that the published accounts of seamen’s cruelties and sufferings at +the hands of the officers of our sailing ships are, in nearly every +instance, true and straightforward descriptions of what took place at +sea. And what is the usual result? The justice dismisses the case with +the remark, “Justifiable discipline.” This is the way that the marine +law is generally administered in our lower courts. There appears to +be but little attempt at justice for the sailor, though I think that +their chances of obtaining their rights in the future are considerably +brighter than they used to be. Does any one of the other three great +maritime nations—Great Britain, France, and Germany—permit such +acts in their merchantmen as the beating of sailors? Decidedly not. +In those countries’ ships sailors are treated as such and not as +anthropophagical savages. Yet our marine laws are practically the +same as theirs. Their laws are enforced, ours are not, by reason of +petty briberies and deceits. It is a different story on our steamers, +where the officers would not dare to maltreat the men. Discipline, +far better than we have here, can be maintained without recourse to +violence, which is proved by the vessels of other nations. Contrary to +the statements of captains and mates, who make them to shield their bad +deeds, foremast hands are <i>not</i> continually trying to create a +disturbance. I will leave this question to be answered by two American +ship-masters, who run their vessels as deep-water ships ought to be, +and who never have any trouble with their crews. These two men, I do +not say that there are no others (though there are lementably few +of them), are Captain Gates of the “S. P. Hitchcock,”<span class="pagenum" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</span> and Captain +Banfield of the “St. James”; these skippers believe in decent treatment +and they see that their men get it. Among twenty or thirty men there +are sure to be two or three hard cases; these should be dealt with +according to their deserts; yet on this ship the black legs have, +in every instance that we have seen, escaped punishment, while such +inoffensive and well-meaning men as Brün, Karl, and others, have been +made the mark for the violent tempers of both mates. The reason for +brutality on Yankee ships is traceable in every instance to one man, +the captain; for, if he did not countenance it, such acts could not +be committed. It is passing strange that American captains, who have +almost invariably risen from before the mast, should have so little +sympathy for sailors, in view of the fact that only a few years ago +they suffered from the tempers of mates just as now the men do who are +under them. Latitude, 57° 22′ south; longitude, 68° 55′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">July 24</span></p> + +<p>Our light winds didn’t last long, for the cross-jack had to be hauled +up, the three top-gallant-sails furled, and the main-sail reefed during +last night. We made excellent headway, though, doing five miles more +than three degrees of longitude, though we were driven off to the +southward too much, being at noon to-day one hundred and sixty miles +south of Cape Horn and well below the northern limit of drift-ice, +though the temperature is not low, 39° at noon. Thus far this has been +a slightly warmer winter passage than the average, though it will +surprise many people to know that the thermometer rarely falls below +30° north of 60° south; the lowest that Captain Scruggs ever saw it was +28°, though a Dutch ship, of which I have forgotten the name, reported +the mercury as low as 20° on one occasion some seventy-five years ago.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</span></p> + +<p>Fogs form a very disagreeable feature of the Southern Ocean after the +meridian of the Horn is passed, and the dampness likewise generally +increases. A pretty good idea of the excessive moisture in this part +of the world may be obtained by reading the report of the surveying +steamer “Sylvia,” which was stationed in the Magellan Straits for +fourteen months. Throughout that period rain fell on an average for +eleven hours out of every twenty-four, the amount per day being half an +inch.</p> + +<p>As for fogs, we have been in one for twenty-four hours now, and a +lookout is stationed on the forecastle-head by day as well as by +night. Indeed, it is probable that the hardest and most tedious part +of the passage still remains; usually it is not very difficult to +reach the seventieth meridian, the heaviest westerly gales generally +being experienced between that point and 50° south, which vessels aim +to cross in 90° west. We should very much like to see the wind come +out of the southwest again, by which it will be perceived how hard we +are to please, for the first ten days off Cape Horn we had nothing +but southwesterly gales, and we rebuked them and would be satisfied +with naught but northerly breezes; now a southerly blow would be most +welcome.</p> + +<p>This morning at eleven the skipper shouted down the companion-way +that there was a vessel on our weather beam, steering east, and that +she would pass close aboard. So we went on deck at once, and there, +looming high out of the fog, under a heavy press of sail, was a large, +three-masted bark. She was the first homeward-bounder that we had seen, +was probably from Australian or New Zealand ports, and she presented +a noble appearance as she swept rapidly by, distant not more than a +third of a mile. She was an old-style vessel, although built of iron, +with no sheer and a phenomenally long jib-boom, the practice in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</span> these +days being to rig sailing vessels of both iron and wood with short, +thick, pole bowsprits. We thought she was going to ask us for her +position, for she was two degrees south of the homeward-bound track; so +we chalked “59°” and “72°” in large figures on a slate, ready to hold +up, for she was near enough to make them out with the glasses. She flew +onward, though, without a sign; and as it was none of our business what +she was doing a hundred and twenty miles out of her course, we didn’t +offer any suggestions. This vessel was a good illustration of the +difference in carrying sail between close-hauled and running free, for +we had nothing set above the topsails, while she was under all three +royals.</p> + +<p>Yesterday was a grand rest-day for the men,—that is, a cessation from +being continually drenched with salt-water, and a few days of this sort +would go far toward healing their sea-boils. As Paddy put it, “To-day’s +worth tin dollars to any one of us, sor.” It was, in truth, an unusual +sight to see the men going about without their oil-skins once more, +for fully two whole weeks have passed since they could work on the +main-deck without these yellow garments. Oil-skins really do not do +very much good in heavy weather, though, as has been mentioned before. +Nothing but a suit of diving armor would keep a man dry on deck off +Cape Horn; still, oil-skins keep a great deal of water out, and also +protect a man against the cold. So much bad weather lately has deprived +me of my customary exercise at the pumps, for it is dangerous to go +knocking about the decks in a heavy sea; but yesterday I had nearly +an hour of hard work, doing forty strokes to the minute. Both watches +pumped together, as a rope was passed over one of the handles; two +thousand strokes at a ship’s pumps is exceedingly lusty exercise if a +man doesn’t shirk his work, and, I should think, would satisfy Sandow +himself.</p> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp90" id="i_048a_2" style="max-width: 140.5em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/i_048a.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption class="caption"><p>Forty to the minute</p></figcaption> +</figure> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</span></p> + +<p>As far as the atmosphere here is concerned, to-day is typical Southern +Ocean weather: drizzly, foggy, clammy, and dismal to an incredible +degree. There is hardly any light at all below at noon, and everything +is dim and obscure, in spite of the fact that the sun commenced his +southern journey more than a month ago. The cabin bill of fare, +however, has not shown the least symptoms of debility; on the contrary, +when we got down past the Falklands the diversity and excellence of the +edibles seemed to increase. The immense variety of tinned goods put +up in these days is astonishing; for to the old list, which comprised +meats, pease, and beans, are added such things as spinach, cabbage, and +pumpkin for pies, all of which seem to be nearly, if not quite, as good +as fresh vegetables. The only article of food on board that is really +bad is the pie-crust; there are not adjectives enough in any language +to describe this atrocious stuff. So surprisingly good is the eating +now that I have copied down what we had at each meal for one week, in +the very worst weather. Here it is, with the hope that the reader will +not be bored in the perusal thereof.</p> + + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Sunday</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p><i>Breakfast.</i>—Salt mackerel, smoked sausage, boiled hominy, and +potatoes.</p> + +<p><i>Dinner.</i>—Pea soup, pressed corned beef, boiled potatoes, +spinach, tapioca pudding, <i>demi-tasse</i>!</p> + +<p><i>Supper.</i>—Pressed corned beef, fried potatoes, jam, and cheese.</p> +</div> + + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Monday</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p><i>Breakfast.</i>—Oatmeal, ham and eggs, corn bread.</p> + +<p><i>Dinner.</i>—Vermicelli soup, beef stew, boned turkey, asparagus, +boiled potatoes, deep apple pie.</p> + +<p><i>Supper.</i>—Boned turkey, corned-beef hash, baked potatoes, canned +strawberries, “Hamburg process.”</p> +</div> + + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Tuesday</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p><i>Breakfast.</i>—Fried tripe, scrambled eggs (questionable), +griddle-cakes.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</span></p> + +<p><i>Dinner.</i>—Vegetable soup, Hamburg steak of fresh pork, Boston +baked beans, pumpkin pie.</p> + +<p><i>Supper.</i>—Mutton stew, baked beans, stewed corn, marmalade.</p> +</div> + + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Wednesday</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p><i>Breakfast.</i>—Oatmeal, salt herring, bacon, potatoes, rolls.</p> + +<p><i>Dinner.</i>—Oyster soup, prawn curry and rice, boned turkey and +string-beans, blackberry pie.</p> + +<p><i>Supper.</i>—Salt beef stew, baked potatoes, stewed apples, canned +pears.</p> +</div> + + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Thursday</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p><i>Breakfast.</i>—Hominy, bacon and eggs, muffins.</p> + +<p><i>Dinner.</i>—Beef broth, roast fresh pork, asparagus, tinned plum +pudding.</p> + +<p><i>Supper.</i>—Boned chicken, corned-beef hash, rolls, fig preserves.</p> +</div> + + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Friday</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p><i>Breakfast.</i>—Smoked salmon, omelette (questionable), rice +pan-cakes.</p> + +<p><i>Dinner.</i>—Clam chowder, picked-up codfish, meat pie, pease, +huckleberry pie.</p> + +<p><i>Supper.</i>—Fish-balls, cold tongue, marmalade.</p> +</div> + + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Saturday</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p><i>Breakfast.</i>—Lobster curry and rice, bacon rolls.</p> + +<p><i>Dinner.</i>—Vegetable soup, roast fresh pork, Boston beans, +macaroni, quince pie.</p> + +<p><i>Supper.</i>—Cold pork, baked potatoes, baked beans, stewed prunes.</p> +</div> + +<p>To this excellent bill of fare I must add that every single item is +of the very best, and when it is mentioned that the ship was stored +by Morris & Co., who include the White Star Line among their patrons, +further comment is hardly necessary. All the pickles and preserves are +in glass jars and put up by Crosse & Blackwell, Worcestershire sauce +by Lea & Perrin, while olives, Edam cheese, and several varieties of +biscuits are always on the table. With such eating, we can exclaim with +Nansen, “Are we to be pitied<span class="pagenum" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</span> when such cheer for the inner man is +provided?” Coffee that is actually delicious washes down all these good +things. Would that sailors fared as well in proportion.</p> + +<p>But oh, the surroundings! The captain in his table manners really +isn’t so very much out of the way, but the mate and the table-cloth +are utterly beyond language. The crust of dirt upon every visible +portion of old Goggins’s anatomy is rapidly increasing, and mire of +various sorts is crystallized in the folds of his corrugated skin. It +is true that the second mate of the “Mandalore” was no better, but then +he didn’t eat with us, while this creature does, instead of with his +pachydermatous relatives in the sty.</p> + +<p>The table-cloth is a marvellous piece of work at the end of the third +day, with islands of gravy, continents of soup, lakes of coffee, +and dollops of all kinds of grease, so that it looks like a sort of +hideous crazy quilt. All this could be avoided by using a piece of +white oil-cloth instead of the soiled cotton cloth, and it could be +wiped clean after each meal. But no deep-water skipper who ever lived +could be induced to abandon his table-cloth, which he cherishes with an +extravagant affection. To him it is one of the boundaries between the +cabin and the forecastle, and anything reminding him of those evil days +when he himself lived in that odious den is too monstrous for thought. +Latitude, 58° 40′ south; longitude, 72° west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">July 25</span></p> + +<p>And still to the southward we go. A little more of this will be more +than sufficient; but the northwesterly winds continue, and we cannot +choose but steer whither they will permit us. Already we are nearly +four degrees south of the Horn, and we will no doubt cross the sixtieth +parallel in a short time. Many captains prefer going even as far +as 64° south, and make their westing down there where the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</span> degrees +of longitude are less than thirty miles, and then steer north on a +meridian, if they can. <i>If they can.</i> Ah! that’s the point; for +often, after penetrating far into the high latitudes, they cannot get +north again when they want to, and these vessels then make very long +passages. For instance, about three years ago several ships were in +sight of each other, all bound to the westward. Some of them, including +the “Reuce,” a Yankee ship, of which Mr. Rarx was then second mate, +knocked about near the land, waiting for a slant; the others dove into +the southward immediately, including the “St. Paul.” All of the latter +made very long passages, the “Reuce” having discharged her cargo in +San Francisco and commenced reloading before the “St. Paul” arrived. +Captain Scruggs is one of those who do not advocate the southern +passage, and he has no chart that reaches below 58° south, so that my +track chart of the world is the only one that can be used just now. +This doesn’t seem right, for ships in the Cape Horn trade ought to be +provided with charts to the South Polar Circle. Suppose a ship were +blown down among the South Shetlands without a chart? Such a thing is +quite possible, and once in that archipelago without a knowledge of the +land or any of the courses, a ship would stand mighty little chance of +getting out again in bad weather.</p> + +<p>This wind is just exactly in the wrong place; of course, we could go +round on the other tack, but we couldn’t do better than north-northeast +by compass, which would be an absurd course, so we have to go pegging +away at it and trust to luck. We are now almost exactly south of +New York, and can imagine the people eating and sleeping there at +the same time that we do ourselves, though under somewhat different +conditions. Steady rain has commenced again; the aneroid stands at 29, +and the melancholy, doleful appearance of the heavens and the sea has<span class="pagenum" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</span> +apparently increased. Latitude, 59° 40′ south; longitude, 75° 20′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">July 26</span></p> + +<p>At last we are steering our course, west-northwest true. A very light +breeze has just now (4 <span class="allsmcap">P.M.</span>) begun to breathe softly out of +the southeast, so faint that we are not doing a mile an hour against +a head-sea; but even such a progression is most welcome, being in the +right direction.</p> + +<p>We had all the wind that we wanted yesterday afternoon, though from +the westward. It began to blow hard at three o’clock, and at 4.30 the +upper fore- and mizzen-top-sails were clewed up; the main-topsail was +double-reefed at five; the main-sail was furled at six; at seven the +foresail was hauled up, and it was blowing a furious gale. So violent +was the wind that all hands were more than an hour and a half making +fast the foresail alone. At midnight there wasn’t a breath of wind, +and we have ever since floundered about in a heavy swell from several +simultaneous directions, and we presented the singular appearance +of a ship becalmed under a double-reefed maintop-sail. Of such is +the weather in the heart of the Southern Ocean. We have crossed the +sixtieth parallel, and at noon we were two hundred and forty miles +farther south than Cape Horn; and so silent and desolate is this vast +ocean that, like Nansen in the “Fram,” we pursue our journey in deepest +solitude, a molecule in this, the largest body of water on the globe.</p> + +<p>There is no alteration in the dark weather, save that at one this +afternoon the sun showed himself for a moment, and I tried to get an +ex-meridian, but failed because of the poor horizon. It has now been +almost a fortnight since we have had either a chronometer or a meridian +sight, and our reckoning is probably far from true. There is always<span class="pagenum" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</span> +something adverse in taking sights down here; for, if the sun isn’t +obscured, a bad horizon makes the correct altitude impossible; and if +the sea-rim is well marked, there is sure to be a gale of wind blowing +to drench the sextant with spray. Happy is the mariner who can get an +accurate observation once every ten days south of Cape Horn, and ships +often reach 30° south in the Pacific without a glimpse of the sun. +At four yesterday afternoon the heaviness and the oppressiveness and +foreboding look of the atmosphere were almost terrible; while the disk +of the sun, weak and pale through the mist-squalls, glared down upon +the wild scene with sickly eye. Hope has arisen within our breasts, +though, with the present southeasterly airs, and perhaps it will not +be long now until we are in bright sunshine again, which will dry out +everything below. The stove seems powerless to reduce the humidity +of the cabin, and the condition of the dining-room is absolutely +outrageous.</p> + +<p>At supper last evening we had a pleasant little diversion. An +unexpectedly heavy sea had come up from the northwest, which, catching +the ship on the quarter, would heave her over to leeward in tremendous +rolls. The supper-bell had rung, and my wife and I had seated ourselves +at the table on the weather-side, the cat perching itself between us +upon the bench; the skipper and mate had not yet come in.</p> + +<p>At that moment these were the contents of the table: four +dinner-plates, four saucers, two plates of bread and biscuit, a large +dish of baked potatoes, a platter of corned-beef hash, a pressed +tongue, a dish of butter, a glass jar of marmalade, a basin of stewed +apples, and innumerable knives, forks, and spoons. All at once there +came that peculiar motion that always precedes an unusually heavy roll +in a sailing ship. We grasped the long bench with the grip of death. +One short roll to windward,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</span> and then began the deep, ponderous, +resistless lurch to leeward. Over she went, leisurely and quietly, and +still farther, till she must have been rail under. At this moment a +dusky object shot by us with incredible speed; it was the steward, who +vanished backward into the open store-room opposite, and we saw him not +again for several minutes. The last part of him to fade out of sight +was his ghastly smile disappearing through the doorway. Then various +objects began to fetch away in the pantry,—tin cans, cups and saucers, +gradually increasing to an <i>allegro furioso</i>; and, finally, with +a frightful clash, like the climax of a full orchestra, the entire +contents of the table swept grandly across to leeward, and fell like +an avalanche against the opposite wall. For the moment we were stunned +by the appalling crash, and then there smote upon our ears a shriek +whose equal cannot be conceived. It swelled now from a low murmur to a +perfectly infernal scream, like the screech of a fog siren, and anon +sank down again, like the moaning wail of the Irish death-cry. It was +the cat. At first we thought that it was buried under the hurricane of +dishes, and looked to see it lying in slithers upon the floor. But no; +his tail had been nipped in the movable back with which the benches are +provided, and the harder we pushed back against it to prevent ourselves +from being projected across the table the fiercer was the grip on +the tail. We could not release the unhappy animal without unpleasant +results, not to say injury, to ourselves, and we could but sit and +hearken to its dreadful voice.</p> + +<p>Solemnly and slowly the ship righted, and a scene of remarkable +devastation confronted us. On the table two articles remained, a +saucer and a shallow, empty, wooden box, used to chock things off +in. Everything else had crashed against the opposite wall with such +terrific energy that the plates and dishes were reduced to the +minutest<span class="pagenum" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</span> fragments. Before it finally found a resting-place the +cylindrical roll of tongue had carromed separately on each baked +potato; a large, unbroken platter slid back and forth on the floor like +a toboggan upon a slick, gleaming path of apple-sauce; the butter was +face down in the extreme corner of the store-room; and the elliptical +wad of corned-beef hash loomed up brown and moist upon the opposite +panel, where it had stuck like a wet snow-ball.</p> + +<p>When the final clatter had calmed down like the distant mumblings of a +thunder-storm, the steward protruded his scared face around the angle +of the doorway, and, urged by the saw-like voice of the skipper, who +had now flown into a passion, and was standing at the threshold, began +to slowly gather up the fragments of our once succulent repast. We +contrived to fare pretty well, though, by scraping off the tongue and +opening a tin of pease and tomatoes; and we would have treated the +whole affair as a joke had it not been for the old man’s temper. He was +thoroughly angry, and when I observed that on the “Mandalore” we had +racks four inches high instead of two, and that we broke not a dish or +a cup during the passage, he almost suffocated, and after glaring at us +a moment, leaning against the mizzen-mast at the head of the table, he +snarled, “I druther set right down and eat offen the floor than have +sech things on the table.”</p> + +<p>Indeed, he has been in a violent mood all day at the light weather, and +a growl is all that he has vouchsafed by way of an answer. After dinner +he went prowling about forward looking for a row, and when he couldn’t +find one, he came back and threw half a plank down the lazarette hatch +at the poor, mewing, deserted alley-cat which he keeps shuts up in the +gloom of that dusky cavern. Latitude, 60° 10′ south; longitude, 76° 20′ +west.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</span></p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">July 27</span></p> + +<p>Wind east, force 6; course, northwest, half west, true; distance run +in the last sixty minutes, ten knots! Glorious work; it is the fastest +that we have gone through the water in several weeks; for the last time +that we flew along at this speed was off the coast of Patagonia, with +a west-northwest gale over the quarter. The grand easterly wind did +not reach us until the morning watch, however, so that the whole day’s +run was not so great as the heading of this day’s log would indicate. +Yesterday, from 4 to 8 <span class="allsmcap">P.M.</span>, we lounged about in an almost +perfect calm; and the stars came out of a clear, placid sky, and, +quivering and trembling, peered down upon an ocean nearly motionless, +for nothing but the ghost of the southwest swell remained. At the +present moment even the last vestige of it has vanished under the +influence of the east wind, and the sea is silent and undisturbed save +for the ruffling caused by the fast-freshening breeze. Strange weather +for 60° south, only four hundred and fifty miles from the South Polar +Circle, in a locality world-famous for its seas and storms. Sometimes, +as in our case, enormous seas are encountered in sight of Cape Horn +itself; but usually the largest are seen to the westward of the Diego +Ramirez, where the sea sinks again to great depths. This easterly wind +is quite surprising to us also; for, barring one day of southeasterly +winds when we first spoke the French ship, four weeks ago, we have +had almost continuous westerly gales. Even for Cape Horn a month of +such implacable winds is a bad record, for on an average an easterly +blow should come every two or three weeks. Our joy, therefore, is very +great, now that we are going so finely and heading our true course, +with the wind on the quarter, and all possible sail set and drawing. +Another unusual, and to our eyes an extremely beautiful, spectacle +was the bright, clear sky of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</span> last night, with the shining path of +the Milky Way encircling the heavens with its girdle of gold-dust; +the stately form of the Crux Australis, now at the zenith; and in the +south, forty-five degrees above the horizon, those two weird nebulæ, +the Magellan Clouds, gazing down at us with wan, dim eyes.</p> + +<p>Still another source of delight is the fact that for the first time +in three weeks I have been able to wear foot-gear other than rubber +boots. My leather ones cracked from being hung too near the stove, +so that ever since we passed Cape Virgins it has either been raining +so hard or the sea has been so heavy, even on the poop, that nothing +but rubber would keep the feet dry; and three steady weeks of rubber +boots is somewhat monotonous. And sleep! Heavens! what a grand one last +night was for peaceful, deep rest, the first that we have had since +we showed our nose outside of Cape St. John. Instead of the customary +rolling through an arc of about forty degrees, there was nothing in the +ship’s motion to indicate that we were afloat except an occasional deep +breath, rather pleasant than otherwise. But I am writing as though we +were in the Tropics and in fine weather for good and all; instead of +which, there are hundreds, almost thousands of miles to cover before +the fine, warm days begin. At this season fine weather cannot be +looked for till we cross 30° south in about 100° west, a difference of +latitude alone of eighteen hundred miles, not to mention longitude at +all.</p> + +<p>Would that some stranger could have heard the mate’s conversation at +dinner to-day and witnessed his gesticulations. The old man commenced +on the subject of the men who manned sailing ships in these days, a +topic that invariably has him in a helpless rage in a few minutes. +“Why,” said he, after a long speech, “I had a crew once in the +‘Priscilly Waters’ that was sailors, not farmers; one watch<span class="pagenum" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</span> of those +fellows would do more work in four hours than the whole of the eighteen +men here in a day, and there was only ten of ’em before the mast. Why, +all hands on the ‘Waters’ used to nearly yank the masts out of her.”</p> + +<p>As in duty bound, the mate agreed with the skipper, which he did by +sharp jerks and winks in the old man’s direction; and even went him one +better by telling how, in ancient days on the Pacific coast, <i>he</i> +had had a crew in the “Jacob Billings,” for nineteen months on end, +who used to lift the ship clean out of the water. But his manner of +speech at meals in the captain’s presence! His absurd, grotesque ways! +He is always much embarrassed how to begin when he has anything on his +mind; and I can see him now, grinning and simpering like a fool, gazing +intently out of the forward window. At last his meditations overwhelm +him; and, drawing his greasy sleeve several times across his mouth +from ear to ear, he begins to utter odd sounds in his throat, still +staring out on the main-deck. Gradually he grows bolder, and fragments +of sentences can be here and there detected; when suddenly, carried +entirely away, he turns his bleary eyes full upon you and finishes in a +violent shout, instantly collapsing, like an exhausted bellows.</p> + +<p>Often, during an evening, when I go on deck for a breath of air before +turning in, he will discourse thus: “I tell you, Mr. Stevens, Noo York +carn’t touch San Francisco for cheap livin’. Why, sir, I can git a meal +in a ’igh-toned rest’rant there for less nor a quarter of what I can +East. Me and the wife was passin’ along the street in San Francisco one +evenin’ (yer’d never take me for the mate of a ship, sir, if you was +to meet me ashore), and she says to me, says she, ‘’Arry, I’m ’ungry,’ +says she. ‘Hall right,’ I says, ‘so am I.’ So we goes into a ’igh-toned +rest’rant and has a bowl er soup, a bit er fish, a pick er veal, some<span class="pagenum" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</span> +vegetables, a piece er pie, and a big cupper corfee. And ’ow much d’ye +think it were? Ten cents apiece. ‘Pretty good,’ says I to th’ old +woman; ‘we’ll try it in Noo York.’ So w’en we got East ag’in, we went +into a rest’rant on Fulton Street, near the ferry, up two flights. +Oh, it were ’igh-toned, too, sir. They ’ad niggers for waiters. So I +picked one out and says to ’im, ‘’Ere, you, bring a bit er steak,’ I +says, ‘some pertaters, and corfee.’ Well, I ’ad to leave the steak, I +couldn’t eat it; and I says to the nigger, ‘Take them pertaters back; I +never eats warmed-over vegetables.’ And wot d’ye think they stuck me? +Fifty cents each!”</p> + +<p>His talking of restaurants puts me in mind of a rather amusing incident +that happened to my wife and me in Boston a year or two ago. We were +walking through Washington Street one evening, and being extremely +hungry, stepped into one of the many dairy kitchens that adorn that +thoroughfare. We found, upon seating ourselves, that it was a religious +institution, with biblical mottoes upon the walls, and we were amusing +ourselves watching the amazement of the prim, gray old couples from the +country, almost stunned by the bevelled mirrors and electric lamps, +when we became aware of two glaring legends hung cheek by jowl high +up on the wall. One read, “Only the righteous shall see God.” Its +neighbor, “Keep your eye on your hat and coat.” Latitude, 59° 9′ south; +longitude, 79° 15′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">July 28</span></p> + +<p>Course, northwest true, distance run in the twenty-four hours, two +hundred and seventy-eight miles! Hurrah for the fair wind! Long live +the easterly gale! What better conditions could be desired than those +that now prevail? A fair, fresh gale, a sea which, while rough, is<span class="pagenum" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</span> +nothing out of the way, and a splendid position in which to take +the expected northwesterly gales in a day or two. Every square inch +of canvas is drawing to its utmost capacity, and we averaged only a +fraction less than twelve knots for the twenty-four hours. Now, in +spite of all the old records of more than three hundred and fifty miles +a day, a run of two hundred and eighty is an extremely good one. It is +certainly no great feat for a ship to make fifty or fifty-five miles +in a watch, but when she maintains twelve knots for twenty-four hours, +sailors call it fast going.</p> + +<p>Some heavy water has come aboard in the last three hours, as all +sailing vessels are very wet running before a strong wind and sea. +At this very moment we shipped a comber over the quarter that broke +entirely over the cabin-house with a crash that shook the bulkheads, +and the skipper has just sung out, “Clew up the royals.” This is +still another fine example of the difference between on and off the +wind. It is blowing a fresh gale, as noted before, which means about +forty-five miles an hour; yet until this moment we have lugged the +three royals without trouble, and only clewed them up because the sea +is getting ugly; by the wind we would be under reefed topsails. The +“Hosea Higgins” doesn’t seem to run well. Even in this sea, which +certainly is not really heavy yet, she is emphatically a wet ship. The +“Mandalore,” a “diving-bell,” was drier than the “Higgins” is now, when +she was running before a sixty-mile gale. We had no business to take +that sea over the quarter a moment ago; indeed, ever since noon we have +had heavy, green water on the poop, and an idea of the quantity may +be gained when it is said that while the captain was standing by the +weather mizzen-shrouds after dinner, a sea washed his legs from under +him, and his grip on the mizzentop-sail-halliards was the only thing +that prevented his being swept down on the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</span> main-deck. All the square +windows in the weather-side of the house have been covered with the +heavy, solid wooden shutters, as though they were ports in the ship’s +side, instead of being inside of and protected by the bulwarks. The +glass, which has been wonderfully steady for sixty hours, has commenced +to fall, and a heavy gale is probably overhauling us, for easterly +gales off the Horn have a hard name.</p> + +<p>In all our experience at sea we never saw anything like the dampness +during the late light weather. No rain fell then, but so heavily +charged with moisture was the atmosphere that the water actually ran +off the poop as during a shower; and from the top of the wheel-house, +in size ten by fifteen feet, we filled two ten-gallon tubs in twelve +hours with the moisture that condensed upon it; while down the walls of +our room, separated from the dining-room, where the hot stove is, only +by the after-cabin, moisture trickled in glistening beads.</p> + +<p>The men have slightly improved, though they are still a badly used-up +lot of sailors. To what an apparently infinite number and variety of +ailments and mishaps they are liable! There is the tough and hardy +second mate, even he has lost the entire use of one hand by a trivial +accident. He had a small wart or something of that sort on the back +of his right hand a few days ago, and on one occasion, while slacking +off the weather lower maintop-sail-brace, one of the ropes knocked off +this tiny excrescence. Mr. Rarx paid no heed to it; but in twenty-four +hours his hand had swollen dreadfully, puffing up like a huge biscuit, +and where the wart had been there formed a large sore that had to be +lanced. Cold salt-water and friction must be looked to as accountable +for this, for Rarx is as lean and healthy-looking as a prize-fighter. +Louis Jacquin, the Frenchman, too, another specimen of rugged health, +had<span class="pagenum" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</span> a finger caught in a main-brace block and jammed, drawing blood; +and in two days an ugly purple rising appeared at the base of the nail, +as large and shining as a hot-house grape—so hard, withal, that a +lance penetrated it with difficulty.</p> + +<p>The best men in the ship are sent to the helm now, for an awkward, +false turn of the wheel in such a sea would broach the ship to in a +moment, and then, good-by pumps, rail, and everything else on the +main-deck. Latitude, 55° 53′ south; longitude, 85° 20′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">July 29</span></p> + +<p><i>Salve lux benigna!</i> Yesterday morning daybreak came perceptibly +earlier than it used to, and by seven o’clock it was sufficiently +light to distinguish faces at a short distance; while this morning, so +much northing had we made, that at seven it was broad daylight; and we +will soon be able to eat our quarter-to-eight breakfast without the +palsied yellow glare of the lamp. It is true that the sky is still +of a Saturnian lead color, but the dark, heavy <i>feel</i> of the +atmosphere has disappeared. To-morrow we will cut the fiftieth parallel +if this easterly breeze holds. It has let go to a certain extent, yet +it blew us over two hundred and fifty miles in the twenty-four hours, +and in three days we have done six hundred and fifty miles to the +northwest-ward, which is extraordinarily good work for this locality; +our position is simply splendid.</p> + +<p>The desire of Captain Scruggs for wishing to appear that he knows +everything, especially in the presence of the mate, is still very +remarkable. Sometimes it is amusing, but more often extremely annoying. +Frequently, when I tell him something that he has never heard of +before, he will nod his head slightly, and, with an alteration of my +own words, repeat the sentence aggressively and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</span> dogmatically, as +though it came directly from him, and he was giving us the information. +The mate is completely deceived, and always looks admiringly toward +him, simultaneously winking and leering atrociously. Moreover, Captain +Scruggs is a man whom you cannot possibly surprise by any statement; +and he is always unmoved in the face of the most unusual occurrences. +As an example, we found, one morning, having taken the precaution of +glancing into the pitcher, that the syrup contained a quantity of +foreign substances which floated about in it.</p> + +<p>“There seems to be a number of curious things in the syrup,” I humbly +ventured; “looks like long-cut tobacco.” Disturbed? Indeed, no. He only +clutched the pitcher from me, peered ferociously into it, and growled, +“Steward, see if you can’t get this dust out with a knife.”</p> + +<p>The skipper is likewise completely destitute of imagination. Shortly +after we sailed I started to read an extract to him (I was bold in +those days) from a collection of excellent sea stories called “The +Port of Missing Ships,” in which mention is made of a mate who was so +zealous that he “tried to see how near he could come to standing in two +places at the same time without splitting himself.” Here I paused and +glanced with a smile at the old man. But, with a face as expressionless +as a tadpole’s, he asked, “Isn’t that a little overdrawn?”</p> + +<p>The mate rises to the most sublime heights of his absurdities when +he observes at dinner, as he frequently does, with a smirk perfectly +diabolical, “Hi knows the secrets of hall the codfish haristocracy +of San Francisco. My old woman used to work in the Wite ’Ouse” +(<i>i.e.</i>, that city’s branch of the Parisian Maison Blanc) “as a +fitter; and be gar’s sakes, sir, the things wot I’ve ’eerd is hawful.”</p> + +<p>He also makes use of extraordinary syncopations in conversation. For +example, should my wife ask him a question<span class="pagenum" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</span> about the weather, he +always says “Sam?” which, being done into English, signifies, “What +say, ma’am?”</p> + +<p>Mr. Goggins is also abnormally addicted to stewed prunes, which we +often have for supper. He usually disposes of four or five at each +mouthful, and you wait to see him get rid of the pits; but you are +disappointed, because he seems to have swallowed them. At length he +has finished a large saucerful, pushes back his plate, draws his +sleeve heavily across his face, leans back in his seat, looks fixedly +at a point in the ceiling with a wooden face, draws in a long breath, +bends over, and gently blows a dozen or so of prune-stones into his +plate, like a shower of hail-stones. Then mumbling, “Hexcuse me, sir,” +wriggles off his seat and out of the door. Latitude, 52° 34′ south; +longitude, 89° 37′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">July 30</span></p> + +<p>At last we have accomplished the arduous midwinter passage of the Horn, +having been twenty-two days off the stormy Cape, or just about the +average; but we would have been at least a week longer had it not been +for that friendly easterly wind. We actually saw the sun several times +to-day, too, were enabled to ascertain our exact location, and our +calculations proved to be only fifty miles out in longitude and thirty +in latitude. In consideration of the fact that for about a fortnight we +wrestled with powerful currents, and uncertain ones at that, the error, +especially in the departure, must be considered insignificant, in view +of the almost limitless sea-room. Whatever may be Captain Scruggs’s +failings, he is a first-rate seaman, and a keen, astute navigator; and +on many occasions near Cape Horn we had opportunities of observing his +accurate, almost infallible judgment.</p> + +<p>To add to our increasing sense of comfort, the sun is<span class="pagenum" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</span> mounting very +rapidly in the heavens, both on account of our northing and by reason +of the lengthening of the southern days. The noon altitude was 21° 20′, +a very respectable height, more than double that of a week ago, when at +meridian the sun, if we had been able to measure his altitude, would +not have been more than 9° 30′ above the horizon. The orb, besides, had +sufficient power to raise the mercury two degrees at mid-day when we +hung a thermometer in his rays.</p> + +<p>Off Cape Horn in winter the temperature is usually somewhat lower +than that of the North Atlantic between the British Isles and the +Newfoundland Banks in January. It is only between the latter point +and New York that vessels experience such an intensity of frost as to +contract the mercury to zero and sheath them in several feet of solid +ice. That is, in the deepest seclusions of the open sea, the weather, +even in the coldest season in high latitudes, is generally mild and +soft compared with that found at the same parallel near a great expanse +of land. Indeed, the comparatively high temperature of the entire +Southern Ocean in winter is due to the preponderance of sea, the long, +narrow finger of Patagonia being the only land south of 45°, save some +diminutive clusters of islands.</p> + +<p>On the other hand, though, owing to the uniformity of temperature +produced by such a waste of ocean, Cape Horn summers are but little +warmer than the winters; the difference between the lowest of July +and the highest of December being only 18°, the average for the year +being 42°; whereas in Canada, far away from the mellowing influence of +salt-water, there is an extreme thermometrical range of 150° between +the seasons. Compare Cape Horn’s winter temperature of 30° in the +latitude of 56° and that of Minnesota of 55° below zero, though St. +Paul is six hundred and fifty miles nearer the equator. St. Paul’s +average for<span class="pagenum" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</span> the year, 44°, is almost identical with that of the Horn, +the intense heat of the northern summers almost exactly balancing +a degree of cold not exceeded by 20° on the Arctic Ocean. Contrary +to the general opinion, the most intense cold is not to be found in +the far northern sea where Nansen travelled, but in Siberia. In the +centre of that desolate country is a town called Irkutsk in 52° north, +or fifteen degrees south of the Polar Circle, at which the lowest +natural temperature ever recorded by man has been observed, the spirit +thermometers once showing a temperature of 93° below zero, or 53-1/2° +below the freezing point of mercury. Artificial cold, though, has far +exceeded this reading, as Professor Dewar obtained a temperature of +about 370° below zero in the liquefaction of oxygen. This latter figure +is about as conceivable as the unit of measure of the astronomer, who +adopts as his basis of calculation for celestial distances that extent +of space which a ray of light would cover in a year, moving at the rate +of one hundred and eighty thousand miles per second. In other words, +instead of using one mile, his unit of distance is 5,676,480,000,000 +miles, which is known as a light year; and he further crushes us with +the information that stars of the seventeenth magnitude are thirty +thousand light years away.</p> + +<p>By this time the exhausted reader has said to himself many times, +“What’s all this got to do with the Southern Ocean?” So, with apologies +for such an excursion into the infinite, let us continue.</p> + +<p>We are now kept farther away than ever from the dining-room stove by a +new aggregation of garments, very different from the others, which need +a little explanation. All the oil-skins in the slop-chest were used up +by the men last week, and we have had to manufacture some for them. +Many ships make a practice of taking to sea several suits of heavy +cotton (which oil-skins are made of), but without<span class="pagenum" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</span> being treated with +the usual mixture of wax and oil. When, therefore, a ship’s regular +stock of oil-skins has been exhausted, the captain produces some of +these cotton suits and has them well rubbed with three coats of boiled +linseed oil, allowing each coat to dry; the result being thoroughly +water-tight, pliable garments, which will not crack, as slop-chest +oil-skins have a curious habit of doing.</p> + +<p>Around our stove for three or four days there have been suspended +several of these suits, so oil-sodden that to touch one means an +immense grease-spot. Nor is this the only inconvenience, for the whole +interior of the cabin reeks with the stifling fumes of hot, boiled oil.</p> + +<p>As far as we have been able to discover, there is but one article sold +from a slop-chest to sailors that is worth paying for, and that is the +stiff, black sou’wester. They are very comfortable, though as rigid as +a fireman’s leather helmet, and are lined with heavy red flannel, with +a band of the same that extends over the ears and back of the neck, +to the exclusion of the most penetrating snow-squalls. The face is +protected by a wide visor of the same inflexible stuff, which extends +far down over the neck. As the old man remarked, “One o’ these things +would stop a battle-axe.” However exaggerated this may be, though, they +do most effectively preserve the cranium from the severest Cape Horn +hail-squalls; you might as well tie a handkerchief over your head as to +wear an ordinary yellow sou’wester in one of these squalls, as far as +protection from the hail is concerned.</p> + +<p>We now have for tea every evening a dish entirely new to us. It is a +hind-quarter of pig steeped in brine for a fortnight; in other words, +an unsmoked ham; and it is the sweetest, juiciest pig meat imaginable. +I would rather eat it than the tenderest young sucking pig I ever +tasted. Another very successful article of food on board is the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</span> soup, +which is made as follows: Empty one of the large one-gallon tins of +mutton (put up in a liquor like canned sausages) into a saucepan; add +tinned carrots, tomatoes, rice, and barley, boil them together for +about thirty minutes, season well with a very little onion, pepper, +etc., and a rich, well-flavored soup will be obtained which would pass +for stock soup almost anywhere ashore. It is infinitely better than the +finest tinned soup. The mutton before alluded to is often purchased by +ships in large quantities and given to the men, alternating with salt +beef and pork; it is also much used for making meat pies for the cabin +table, for which it is well suited, the resemblance to fresh mutton +being remarkable. Our last pig has just been slaughtered; it seemed a +pity to kill the poor beast, for he was an intelligent, quaint little +fellow, very tame, and fond of being petted. Latitude, 50° 14′ south; +longitude, 90° 12′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">July 31</span></p> + +<p>Our breeze from west-northwest has not been very strong for the past +twenty-four hours, and in addition we made two degrees of easting, +which is sad. This was the first morning for a month on which we were +able to eat our breakfast without lamplight, and in another week we +hope to dispense with it at supper also. The weather is by no means +clear yet, though, and we are now crossing the famous Roaring Forties, +that belt of fierce winds lying between the parallels of forty and +fifty on both sides of the equator, and clear skies cannot be expected +until we are north of 40° south at least.</p> + +<p>I expect to suffocate with suppressed hilarity before long if Mr. +Goggins continues to grow more absurd. Last night I went on deck about +ten o’clock and found the mate silently pacing athwartships near the +wheel-house. It was<span class="pagenum" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</span> raining, and his costume itself was enough to +generate mirth in an owl. He was wrapped as in a sable shroud, in some +one’s long black oil-skin coat, which was so much too large for him as +to touch the deck, and the sleeves hung down half-way to his knees like +the arms of a walrus, while his head was covered with a very old, limp +sou’wester, also black, which fitted him like a skull-cap; it possessed +not even an indication of a brim, so that the drizzling rain trickled +down along the musty creases of his face, glistening in the wake of the +binnacle-lamp. His forsaken appearance was further enhanced by a couple +of yards of ancient gray rattlin-stuff that girded up the folds of his +coat and prevented his tramping on it.</p> + +<p>Without a word he ranged up alongside, and dropping his voice to a +rasping whisper, as is his wont whenever he is about to reveal a +startling theory, he said, mysteriously and very suddenly,—</p> + +<p>“The human race is on the decline, sir.”</p> + +<p>I didn’t reply, and he continued, “Where are the strappin’ big fellows, +five-foot ten, five-foot eleven, and five-foot twelve, you used to see? +Where are they, I say? <i>Gone. Gone.</i> And wot do ye find now? The +present generation is growin’ up small and feeble, sir. They’re weak +and no good. And luk at the winds; they’re changin’ too. They hain’t +wot they used to be in the Atlantic; nor in the Pacific; nor off Cape +Horn. The Trades is changed. Everythink’s changed. I may be a hold +fool, sir, but I knows a thing or two. There’s more in my ’ead than +comes out with a fine-tooth comb.”</p> + +<p>All this with the most intense earnestness and so much stifled emotion +as to render him partially unintelligible, while he snapped and jerked +his long sleeves about in the most uncomfortable manner.</p> + +<p>Then he abruptly changed the thread of discourse and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</span> began, “You talk +about seas comin’ aboard, but you ought to been with me once when I +was mate o’ the ‘Commodore.’ ’Twas in the Santa Barbara Channel, and +blowin’ a whole gale o’ wind. We were runnin’, but bime by the old man +thought he’d heave her to. So we put the hellum down, and as she was +comin’ up, be gar’s sakes, sir, she shipped a sea that I thought was +goin’ to take the hatches off. ‘You’d better jump below and call the +second mate,’ said the cap’n; so I slipped down the after-companion-way +into the cabin, where the old man’s eight-year-hold son was jockeyin’ a +sofy that had fetched away, and says he, ‘Dad’s a-givin’ of ’er ’ell, +ain’t he?’ he says. Well, I called the second mate, and then the cap’n +says to us, ‘Go down and cut the lashin’s o’ that ere water-cask by the +after-hatch; she’ll wipe the houses off if she don’t free herself.’ +’Twas a funny thing to do, but he was cap’n; so we crawled down on the +main-deck where the watch was knockin’ about and cut the barrel adrift. +In less nor five seconds it went through the rail, and in a minute +there warn’t a capful o’ water on deck. It cost about ten feet o’ the +port bulwarks, but ’twas our only chance.”</p> + +<p>Now that we are well up past the rigors of Cape Horn, it actually seems +as though we were close to San Francisco, while five thousand miles +of latitude remain and fully fifty degrees of longitude, as ships are +forced well out into the Pacific by the northeast Trades. Latitude, 48° +30′ south; longitude, 88° 25′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">August 1</span></p> + +<p>Oh, how divinely beautiful and grand the dark-blue floor of heaven is +after four weeks of hard gales, leaden, lowering clouds, and gray, +clammy mists! To-day for the first time the sun shone with dazzling +splendor, and although<span class="pagenum" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</span> the altitude at meridian was only 26° 51′, +we agreed that never before in our lives had we known a day of equal +magnificence. And, even making allowance for our enthusiasm, the +weather was well-nigh perfect. Between sunrise and dusk not the +smallest cloud blurred the blue sky, which was reflected in a sea of +dazzling crests, whose valleys partook of that dark, superb, velvety +blue which is seen only where the ocean-bed sinks to immense depths, +and which Mark Twain says looks solid enough to walk upon. A sparkling +breeze whistled out of the west as exhilarating as pure oxygen, giving +us a speed for the twenty-four hours of nine knots. That blighting, +killing chill has vanished and one’s ears no longer tingle on exposure; +and at noon we enjoyed a temperature of 50°, a rise of twenty degrees +from the lowest. What a change in six days from 60° south, 76° west, +to 45° south, 88° west! Pretty good work that, in less than a week; it +is so much better than the average that it seems incredible. We cannot +believe that in so short a time we have been blown across what ought to +have been the worst part of the entire voyage. It was all the work of +the east wind.</p> + +<p>Just now there is a long, deep roll coming in from the southwest, +and I am earnestly looking for some of those immense waves for which +the South Pacific is famous. According to sailors, they usually +occur two or three days after new and full moon; and as we had a +new moon last night, perhaps we will see some of these rollers. +This reminds me, however, that scientists have determined, after +protracted observations, that the moon’s phases have no influence at +all on the weather. Sailors often say during a spell of bad weather, +“Well, there’s a change in the moon to-night; we’ll have a fine day +to-morrow”; and if chance supports their remark, heaven couldn’t shake +their belief.</p> + +<p>This heavy sea that is met with here is generally not at<span class="pagenum" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</span> all ugly; +only a deep heave-up from the southward, often without wind, and is +said to be one of the most impressive of all oceanic phenomena. The +South Atlantic as well as the Pacific is also visited periodically by +immense seas during calm weather. At St. Helena and Ascension they are +called “rollers,” while at Fernando de Noronha and on the West African +coast they are known by the Portuguese name of “calemmas.” They seem +to occur chiefly in January, and, strange to say, they invariably +came from the northwest. The quotation that follows is from the pen +of Captain S. P. Oliver, who visited St. Helena in 1881 in one of the +Union steamers:</p> + +<p>“These rollers set in from the northwest on Thursday, January 13, with +unusual severity, but lulled somewhat on the following day, Friday, +only to recur with abnormal force on Saturday, attaining their maximum +strength on Saturday night, so that the spectacle on Sunday morning was +grand and magnificent, while the weather was bright and calm. It was +surprising to see the spray of these deep ocean waves hurled by sheer +force, for there was no wind, like fountains over the huge cliffs of +Goat Pound Ridge and Horse Pasture, which rise perpendicularly seven +hundred feet sheer out of the sea. The force of these enormous billows +was spent by Sunday night, and gradually subsided into the normal calm +on Monday morning.”</p> + +<p>At our present rate of sailing a fortnight would see us on the equator, +but if we cross it in three weeks it will be fine work. What sort +of luck are we going to have between these westerly winds and the +southeast Trades? That is one of the crucial points of the voyage that +remain, another being, how far south will the northeast Trades blow?</p> + +<p>We had a little excitement to-day at dinner. Ever since our cabin fire +has been going, it has been the custom of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</span> steward to put a can of +whatever vegetable we were to have that day for dinner upon the top of +the stove to heat; the proper way, of course, is to place the can in +a dish of water and that in turn upon the stove or what not. To-day +it was a tin of string-beans, and the steward, fully an hour before +dinner, put the can upon the stove, which was nearly red-hot. (The +warmer the day the hotter the fire, here as elsewhere.) When the soup +had been cleared away, the gentle, timid little Malay took the tin into +the pantry and attacked it with a can-opener. But no sooner was the +metal pierced than the whole pantry was filled with a suffocating steam +that rushed hissing out of the vent with the most astonishing fury. +We sat aghast. The old man cursed a little and the mate got up, but +instantly thought better of it and sat down again. And still the steam +came belching out of the can, which had fallen down and was shooting +about the pantry like a demented steam-cylinder, while we could dimly +perceive the slender form of the little steward through the pungent +vapory clouds making courageous efforts to lay hold of the bewitched +bean-can. For nearly a minute steam continued to escape with such force +that it almost shrieked; and had the tin remained another five minutes +on the stove it must certainly have exploded and scattered boiling +water, beans, and jagged fragments of tin and lead about the room.</p> + +<p>Last evening at supper a bottle of Apollinaris burst in my hand with +a loud report as I was opening it, scaring the valiant Goggins into +upsetting a full cup of tea upon a clean cloth, for which the old man +fixed him with his eye and held him thus for quite half a minute during +an awful silence.</p> + +<p>If only for the sake of the sailors we are anxious to get into warm +weather again as soon as possible. Now that they have removed the +mufflers, etc., from their necks and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</span> heads, we can see how pale and +washed out most of them are. There are only two among them who do not +bear ocular proof of the hardships of a month in the Southern Ocean +in July. Paddy is perhaps the worst looking of the whole crew, though +he cannot be thirty years of age. This is due probably to his never, +under any circumstances, shirking his work, and to his exerting himself +more than any one else in the ship. Indeed, he was so full of nerve +and energy in the worst weather, that the captain surprised us once by +saying, pointing to Paddy on a yard-arm in a heavy squall, “There’s +what I call a brave man; he doesn’t know what fear is.” The skipper +didn’t mean to insinuate that Paddy was courageous for going out on the +yard at that moment; he was thinking about his general conduct.</p> + +<p>Poor Paddy’s arms from wrist to elbow are perfect mountain-chains of +sea-boils, and he looks as ghastly and pallid as a corpse, with pointed +nose and staring eyes; his entire appearance has changed. It may be +interesting to add that the majority of foremast hands do not live to +be forty-three years old.</p> + +<p>I forgot to say that for the first time in five weeks the mate shaved +for dinner to-day, and so sleek and blue and shiny and naked did it +make him look, that it was almost a shock when he sat down opposite us. +Latitude, 45° 2′ south; longitude, 87° 40′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">August 2</span></p> + +<p>This day was even finer than yesterday, except that since ten this +forenoon we haven’t had much wind. But the weather is warmer, 48° at 8 +<span class="allsmcap">A.M.</span>, and the sea is as placid and still and clear as under +the line. All the ground-swell has disappeared, and the great, level +expanse of the mighty South Pacific stretches on all sides in tiny +crinkles, frosted here and there by a crisp sparkle of froth; and the +sea-rim<span class="pagenum" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</span> bounds the view in a circle as sharp and black as ink. It was +a day of almost tropic beauty, save that the air lacked the ineffable +balm characteristic of a day at sea between Cancer and Capricorn. We +rejoice at seeing the sky-sails once more expanded to the breeze, for +to-day the three yards were crossed, giving to the ship a fine-weather +look. Juan Fernandez will soon be abeam, and then only a few degrees +more to the Trades, for we made three and a half degrees of latitude +yesterday and hardly any easting. How pleasant it is to think of the +approach of warm weather again, when we can lie in deck-chairs in the +shadow of the wheel-house with a good book, or pass away the hours with +a backgammon- or cribbage-board!</p> + +<p>We are very much pleased to find how free this ship is from roaches +that usually abound in sailing vessels; the only member of that +objectionable family that we have yet perceived was a small red one; +of the large, black cockroaches we have not seen one, though on the +“Mandalore” we were told that they were numerous on all wooden ships. +Neither have we discovered any of the more villanous creatures, which +cannot be said of many transatlantic mail steamers.</p> + +<p>A fact worthy of note, as deplorable as it was unexpected, is that +since passing the meridian of Cape Horn we have not seen a single +albatross. Indeed, during the whole passage we haven’t seen more than a +dozen of them, they having been most numerous between the river Plate +and Staten Land. In truth, the albatross seems to be disappearing, +which is not astonishing when it is considered that many ship-masters +either use them as rifle-targets or catch them by the half-dozen +with hook and line, and take the quills and down home to sweethearts +and wives. Is it not odd, by the way, that there are more benedicts +among sea-captains than are to be found among the men of any other<span class="pagenum" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</span> +profession? Yet long-voyage skippers, who are invariably married men, +see their wives only once a year.</p> + +<p>Perhaps the albatross has been driven away into regions even more +solitary than Cape Horn, but it is my belief that they are gradually +vanishing, which is to be much lamented. They are of no apparent use +to mankind, but neither is the tiger; yet if that royal beast were +upon the eve of extermination, as our bison is, there would be a great +wailing heard in the land. The albatross, be it said, has all the regal +dignity of the bison; and no one who has not seen it can imagine the +imperial flight of a full-grown wanderer. Latitude, 41° 35′ south; +longitude, 86° 56′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">August 3</span></p> + +<p>Pleasant northerly breezes, a smooth sea, and brilliant sunshine +gladdened our hearts this morning, and at noon we found ourselves +well north of 40°. The wind hauled to the northward somewhat during +the night, though, so that, with the variation, we did not make good +a better course than northeast by north, and are now heading for Juan +Fernandez in 34° south.</p> + +<p>We have made a disagreeable discovery about Timothy Powers in the +port-watch. I don’t remember whether it was mentioned before or not, +but Tim was said to have fallen off the forward house two weeks ago +and sprained his right arm. From the first the captain never could +discover anything wrong with it, but as the fellow insisted that he +suffered terrible pains in that member, there was naught to do for +a while but to believe him. At last the skipper grew tired of Tim’s +loafing, and, going out on the main-deck this morning, he gave the +Irishman a very sulphurous dressing down and compelled him to turn to. +He was sent forward to clean out the pig-pen, and he went to work with +a woful countenance to lift off two planks that served as an apology<span class="pagenum" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</span> +for a roof to the sty. He couldn’t move them with one hand, so he +stopped, looked carefully about to see whether or not he was observed +by the mates or any of his friends, deliberately took his arm out of +the sling in which he still insisted on carrying it, lifted the heavy +planks down with ease, put his arm back in the sling, resumed his +pitiful look, turned to reach for a broom, and found the eyes of the +second mate fixed steadily upon him. Mr. Rarx had been concealed and +had witnessed the whole affair. That settled it. Tim almost fainted +from shock, and from now till the end of the voyage his will not be a +bed of roses. Think how this creature has been imposing not only on +the captain and officers, but on his fellow-shipmates as well! For two +entire weeks his most arduous duty consisted in keeping the lookout on +the forward house in the daytime, perfectly well, with all night below, +while his friends, ill and drenched to the skin, had to dive around +the main-deck day and night with chattering teeth, two hands short in +the worst weather,—two hands, because old Neilsen has been laid up +in his bunk with general debility, too weak to even put his foot on +the main-deck. Tim is the sort of animal who contributes much to the +misery and suffering of sailors. A captain, for instance, catches a +man in such a deceit, never forgets it and refuses to believe the next +man, who actually has hurt himself, so that the real sufferer has to +bear the penalty of the other’s fraud. It is not a criminal offence, +but a low, contemptible trick; though just such a one as a man with a +face like Tim’s would be guilty of. The mate’s powers of divination +are not particularly acute, for he observed one day off the river +Plate, looking at Tim, “There goes a feller that <i>I</i> call a good, +faithful man.”</p> + +<p>At dinner to-day I chanced to remark that, as we had had such benefits +from the easterly wind, we ought to accept our three points of easting +now without grumbling. Mr. Goggins,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</span> however, is a fearful kicker, even +for a sailor; so, thinking to please the old man, he instantly replied, +“We ain’t had forty-eight hours o’ good luck on the hull passage.” This +was so remarkable a statement that my wife was provoked into saying, +gently but positively, “The man who talks like that doesn’t deserve +to reach port for six months more.” “Well, we ain’t,” quoth Goggins, +doggedly. Then I took a hand (it is usually best not to argue with him +and the skipper), and asked as sarcastically as I could, “I suppose +that three days’ easterly gale doesn’t count? And how about the first +sixteen days of the voyage? You’re enough of a sailor, I suppose, +though, to have forgotten all that.” I thought that he was floored; but +he was possessed of more vitality than one would have supposed, for he +came back at me with, “Well, the yards was ag’in the backstays all the +time in the North Atlantic.”</p> + +<p>This was such a novel stand to take that we let him alone, so that +he got up and tramped out of the cabin much inflated. What possible +difference it could make whether or not the yards touched the backstays +as long as the ship lay her course and went through the water was +beyond my powers of reasoning.</p> + +<p>We are now followed by an immense number of Cape pigeons. What merry, +blithesome little fellows they are, apparently all good-nature and +love for one another as they circle around the ship, almost brushing +the standing-gear in their mad, tumbling flight, now skimming just +above the sea, now soaring over the mast-heads, and sweeping down again +for very joy that they are made! But let a bucket of table refuse be +thrown over the side, and then away with good-fellowship and fraternal +affection. It’s a true case of every one for himself and the devil take +the hindmost. No sooner does the refuse touch the water than two or +three catch sight of it, and in an<span class="pagenum" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</span> instant fifty pigeons are involved +in furious battle. They fairly scream in their excitement, and beat +each other with their powerful wings, and snap viciously right and left +with sharp, curved bills. Then one lucky one will perchance seize a +choice morsel. Instantly he is set upon by a dozen of his companions, +who mercilessly bear down upon him before he can rise from the surface +with his prize, and actually beat him down under water in their fierce +efforts to get at the tempting mouthful; but so plucky are they, that +we have never seen one relinquish anything when his bill has once +closed upon it.</p> + +<p>While the pigeons are engaged in this deadly strife a great molly-hawk +sometimes looms up astern, having sighted the combat from afar, and +dashing into the centre of the squabbling flock, which scatters before +his huge wings and wide, formidable beak, like crows before a vulture, +he snaps up the bone of contention and soars away to enjoy it at his +leisure. After the rapacious monster has departed from out their midst, +the dejected little creatures return, and hover over any particle of +food that may remain, ever and anon diving far below the surface for a +crumb that they perceive deep down in the placid depths, rising again +with such amazing buoyancy and energy as to lift themselves clear out +of the water, like an inflated bladder suddenly released. They afford +us much amusement; but another six hundred miles farther north will, no +doubt, see the last of our merry little companions. Latitude, 39° 35′ +south; longitude, 85° west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">August 4</span></p> + +<p>Although the lovely clear skies have for a while disappeared, being +obscured by the most clearly defined stratus clouds that I ever saw, +the weather is bracing and dry, with a sea so smooth that it never +would be supposed that we<span class="pagenum" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</span> were hundreds of miles from any land larger +than Juan Fernandez or its neighbor, Mas-á-Fuera. Each day sees a rise +of two or three degrees in the air and sea, and we are moving well up +into the heart of the thirties. We will, no doubt, soon fall in with +vessels from Chilean ports bound around the Horn; but those from San +Francisco have been driven so far to the westward by the Trades that +in this latitude they are away over in 125°. The wind is still to +the northward of west, and we continue to make more easting than is +desirable; because, if we have to steer much farther in towards the +land, our course when we take the Trades will have to be northwest in +order to cross the line in the right place, which, of course, would be +dead before the wind, an undesirable position in a square-rigger, as in +that event only the after-sails draw.</p> + +<p>Captain Scruggs was quite a treat at the mid-day meal, for he appeared +in one of his majestic phases, when no one can tell him anything that +he doesn’t already know. My wife unhappily mentioned that this would +be fine yachting weather. Now, the mere mention of a yacht nearly +always upsets him; and we, therefore, had to listen while he disputed +vigorously with himself for some minutes; and he finally concluded with +the assertion that he could take the “Volunteer” and sail right round +the “Defender”; he knew the old one was better, anyhow, than that there +new brass boat, or whatever she was made of. On suggesting that he +might find some little difficulty in consummating such an undertaking, +he replied, “Well, I’ve got that confidence in myself; I used to sail +small boats when I was a boy, and I ain’t forgot how.”</p> + +<p>He concluded his remarks, always delivered in explosions as though +challenging you to deny them, with a disquisition on jams. He believes +in the theory that all kinds of preserves are boiled down together, +and that different<span class="pagenum" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</span> labels are then stuck on the tins. “Look at that, +now,” he growled, pointing to one on the table. “What d’ye call +that?” I showed him the device of a fig on the wrapper, with the name +beneath it. “Lemme taste it,” said he, plunging a knife deep into the +preserves. “There, what’d I tell you? ’Taint fig jam, it’s currants; +they hain’t got the right libel onto it,” he explained.</p> + +<p>When dinner was over we repaired, as usual, to the after-cabin, while +the old man strode heavily back into the dining-room, called the mate, +and abruptly demanded, “Have you got that spigotti out yet?”</p> + +<p>“What’s that, sir?” asked the mate.</p> + +<p>“Spigotti, spigotti; like macaroni. Don’t you know by this time what +spigotti is?” said the skipper, very angrily, for he knew that he +didn’t have the name right and that we could hear him.</p> + +<p>“No, sir, Cap’in Scruggs, sir, I’m d—— if I do,” stammered the +hapless Goggins; for we could perceive the captain through a chink in +the door bristled up like a ruffled bantam, and the hideous, grisly old +mate, his eyes popping out like a pair of deviled kidneys, racking his +brain for a translation of spigotti.</p> + +<p>But the particularly scintillating jewel in the skipper’s galaxy of +remarkable pronunciations is his name for the inhabitants of Chile. +They become Chilaneans; though, now that I think of it, I have heard +other ship-masters put themselves to the trouble of so pronouncing +it. Where do they get that extra syllable from? Now, in the case of +Cubians, it’s different. They all say Cuby, so why not Cubians? It’s +logical. But Chilaneans is unreasonable.</p> + +<p>Speaking of Cuba reminds me of what a Chesapeake Bay fisherman asked me +once, “Hain’t Mayceo fit with the Cubians before?” This was just before +Maceo was killed.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</span></p> + +<p>Captain Scruggs seems utterly unable to avoid contradiction, and, +being possessed of very uncouth manners (which he nevertheless knows +quite well how to correct), it may be conceived how trying an ordeal +half an hour at the table with him must be. “Don’t talk with him, +then,” is very easy to say; we don’t talk between meals to him, but at +table it is almost necessary to make one or two observations in thirty +minutes; and whenever the silence becomes overwhelming and we hazard a +remark, it is disheartening to listen continuously to “<i>I</i> don’t +<i>think</i> so.” Latitude, 37° 3′ south; longitude 83° 20′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">August 5</span></p> + +<p>Just another such day as yesterday, with the sky obscured by +sharply-cut, stratus clouds. The only perceptible difference is that +to-day the air is a little more balmy; the wind and sea are precisely +the same, and our experience so far has been that the Pacific is most +aptly named. Of course we ought to be reaching smooth water now, +though it is often rough in the southeast Trades; the surprising part +is that we had such a quiet sea in the stormy forties. The air has +been wonderfully soft all day, the thermometer indicating 58° at noon, +although the sky was completely overcast.</p> + +<p>Mas-á-Fuera bore east-northeast true at mid-day, distant in round +numbers one hundred miles, with Juan Fernandez two hundred miles away +in about the same direction. The appearance of this latter island is +said to be strikingly beautiful, though in size it is only thirteen +miles by four. It consists of a series of steep, rugged hills, formed +by huge boulders piled one upon the other, the loftiest reaching +an altitude of three thousand feet. Palms, tree-ferns, and a thick +undergrowth partially cover these rocky declivities, growing in very +shallow earth, which slips away<span class="pagenum" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</span> when one attempts to scale the +precipices, and it is said that on this account the culminating peak +has never yet been ascended.</p> + +<p>Juan Fernandez, which lies in the approximate corresponding latitude of +the Madeiras, is indissolubly associated with Robinson Crusoe, Defoe +having based his tale upon the adventures of one Alexander Selkirk, +of Fifeshire, Scotland, who was put ashore there in 1704, at his own +request, by Captain Straddling of the “Cinque Porte” galley, with +whom, as master, Selkirk had quarrelled. It is highly improbable, +however, that Juan Fernandez is the island pictured by Defoe, as his +descriptions in Crusoe do not always tally with the conformations of +Fernandez. Modern writers incline to the belief that Trinidad, off the +Venezuelan coast, was the island in “Robinson Crusoe.” Selkirk lived +on Juan Fernandez until 1709, when he was rescued by the ship “Duke” +from what seems to have been a by no means intolerable imprisonment. +Mas-á-Fuera, which means “more to sea,” called so by the Spaniards, +though far smaller than its neighbor, is even loftier still, one peak +attaining a height of four thousand feet.</p> + +<p>In every spot where men do congregate there will nearly always be found +one silent individual, from whom it is apparently impossible to extract +a single syllable. We had one such on the “Mandalore,” an English +seaman with a Board of Trade certificate. During the whole voyage of +eighteen weeks he was never heard to utter a word unless he had some +unavoidable reason. Aboard the “Higgins” there is a man who can give +him cards and spades on taciturnity, for he hasn’t been known to speak +by either mate since the eleventh of May. This contemplative genius is +Karl, he whom Rarx so brutally struck in the face with the block away +back in the South Atlantic. Even then no word passed his lips, though +he did groan<span class="pagenum" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</span> He isn’t surly—it is just his way—and the mates do +not mind now when he doesn’t answer, as he is manifestly so willing. +For torpid stupidity and phlegmatic stolidity his equal would be hard +to find, and we have often watched him at work and wondered, “Can it +really talk?” The most unexpected and painful surprise cannot draw +from him the slightest exclamation. For instance, a fortnight ago, one +afternoon at the pumps, a big sea surged over the side, but most of the +men saved themselves by jumping up on the fife-rail, except Karl and +Brün. Indeed, the latter had saved himself, and was kneeling on the +rail holding fast to the mizzen-royal-braces; Karl’s mind, though, was +far too numb to grapple with such an emergency, so the water carried +him off his feet, wrenched away his grip on the pump-handle, and was +sweeping him across the deck, when he grasped one of Brün’s feet in his +flight. This broke the latter’s hold on the brace, and away both flew +into the water-ways, where they bobbed around for a while in thirty-six +inches of icy brine. Brün was in a rage, of course, but not so Karl. +His wooden face arose by and by from the roaring scuppers, placid and +tranquil; he then by degrees found his legs, waited for a weather-roll, +shot back to the pumps, and resumed his place, totally unmoved. All +this time he was as dumb as a giraffe.</p> + +<p>Again, yesterday afternoon, he was doing some work on the starboard +main-brace-bumpkin, when he slipped and went half under water before +he caught the bight of a rope that luckily hung over the side. Even +this didn’t trouble him in the smallest degree; he didn’t even wink his +codfish eyes, but seated himself again upon the bumpkin and proceeded +with his job.</p> + +<p>Toward the end of the third month at sea most people begin to suffer +somewhat from dyspepsia, induced, no doubt, by the absence of fresh +meat and vegetables, though<span class="pagenum" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</span> the best tinned varieties of the latter +certainly taste as good as the fresh. In the old days people, it is +true, did not have the great amount of such edibles to choose from as +they do now in going to sea, but they had plenty of young pigs and +sheep and chickens, which atoned in measure for the lack of canned +vegetables. Indeed, the deck of a Yankee ship fifty years ago looked +like the conventional barn-yard, with its pig-and sheep-stalls, +hennery, and not infrequently an enclosure for a couple of cows. +Latitude, 34° 5′ south; longitude, 83° 15′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">August 6</span></p> + +<p>Gradually, since daylight, the form of the clouds has been changing +till they have assumed that of cumulus, and as the wind is letting +go, with an appearance of showers ahead, we seem to be upon the +brink of a change in the weather. For seven days the wind has been +at west-northwest, with never a shift of two whole points, while +the variation of the aneroid during that period was not more than +fifteen-hundredths of an inch. We are practically on the thirtieth +parallel at present, so that in eleven days we have made thirty degrees +of latitude. Steadily, too, the temperature has been rising, standing +at 59° at eight this morning for both air and water; a still more +significant indication of our northing, however, is that last night the +fire in the cabin stove was allowed to die out, to-day being the first +time in thirty-eight days that we have been without artificial heat; +thus for almost six weeks has the stove been going full blast, for it +was first lighted in 38° south in the Atlantic.</p> + +<p>It is always an interesting thing to note the different attitude of +captains toward their chief mates on long-voyage ships. Some are +extremely affable, others are reserved and haughty to an absurd +degree. Where men are confined<span class="pagenum" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</span> together in so small a space as a +ship’s deck for months at a stretch I think that a captain ought to +be reasonably unbending, but always dignified, in his manner toward +the chief officer, though, of course, much depends upon the sort of +man the latter is. Captain Scruggs is by turns civil and positively +wolfish toward Mr. Goggins; and one of the most curious phases of the +old man’s character is that he invariably crushes the mate whenever the +latter says something that he thinks will please the skipper. Night +before last, at supper, during a conversation about British Columbia, +the mate turned to the captain and beamingly said, “I remember the +time, sir, thirty years ago, when you used to could talk Chinook with +the best of ’em.” To his chagrin, though, the old man growled, “Never +knew six words of Chinook in my life”; while as a matter of fact he +used to talk it well. Mr. Goggins returned to the charge, however, and +again essayed some remarks, during which he ventured to hope that the +wind would back into the southward and let us make some westing, very +reasonably supposing that here was a sentiment that any skipper would +endorse. But, though the captain has been in a white heat lately at our +easting, he observed that he “didn’t care a chew er terbakker where the +wind went to,” which so angered the mate that he answered quite hotly, +“Well, so far as <i>I</i> go, I’m sure <i>I</i> don’t care ’ow long +we’re at sea; but I <i>know</i> you do and so do the owners.” “I say I +don’t care a rap, rap, rap!” stormed the skipper, and we looked for a +row; but the mate slid off the bench and disappeared.</p> + +<p>Strange man; unfortunate disposition. He must contradict. He feels it +his duty to differ from every one else, even if he knows that he is +wrong. This morning I remarked, as we sat down to breakfast, “I see the +thermometer’s 59° this morning.” “58-1/2°, I think,” he<span class="pagenum" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</span> corrected. +Now, in the first place, it was 59°; and in the second place, he +wouldn’t have known it if it had been half a degree lower, for he can’t +read a book without powerful lenses, much less the rusty scale of a +thermometer a foot above his head. Latitude, 30° 44′ south; longitude, +82° 30′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">August 7</span></p> + +<p>“Unhook that double main-sheet! Square the yards!” Oh, welcome, joyous +words! Even if the wind is not more than a breath, it allows us now to +lay the course and with a little to spare.</p> + +<p>There are some ultra-nautical landsmen who will vigorously object to +the first word in this day’s log, and will insist that I ought to have +written “cast-off” instead; but if these individuals would go to sea +they would learn that there are many expressions heard aboard ship +which no argument could persuade them to use, for fear of not being +considered <i>au fait</i> in nautical nomenclature. We have all seen +the horror of the pale youth with the large steam yacht when some one +in his hearing has suggested going “down-stairs” instead of “below.” +Yet many deep-water sailors say “down-stairs.” And one of Captain +Scruggs’s characteristic orders is, “Let the fore-t’gallant-yard +run down, Mr. Rarx, and tie up the sail,” instead of “Clew up the +fore-t’gant’-s’l,” while he himself ordered the double main-sheet +“unhooked.”</p> + +<p>To resume. For seven or eight days we have been jammed hard on the +wind, and while we have made very excellent northing, we have fallen +away to the eastward so much as to well-nigh overbalance our difference +of latitude. In yesterday afternoon’s watch, however, the ship began to +come up, and all last night we steered northwest, our course, making +fairly good way, though it fell calm at daybreak,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</span> but breezed a bit +again, and the yards were checked in a couple of points more at 10 +<span class="allsmcap">A.M.</span> According to Findlay, the average time from 50° south in +the Pacific to San Francisco is fifty-four days, and as we are somewhat +ahead of the average since leaving that parallel, we can stand a good +deal of light weather and still make a fair passage. It cannot be +denied, though, that from the equator to 40° south on the other side +we had a remarkable streak of bad luck; and I expect that the “A. G. +Ropes,” which sailed from New York thirteen days ahead of us, will make +a faster passage than we will. In parenthesis I might remark that most +of the large ship-owners give their captains ten dollars per day for +every day under one hundred and twenty. For instance, if a man makes +the passage in one hundred and ten days, he is entitled to one hundred +dollars.</p> + +<p>It may be that the curious would like to know how we passed those +dreary weeks off Cape Horn, and here was our scheme, though, in truth, +our habits then were about the same as they are now. I rose at seven, +breakfasted at quarter to eight, and walked the poop alone till nearly +eleven. On days that were very rough, it was a continual source of +pleasure to chock myself off between the stern-bitts and speculate, +when a particular wave was still several hundred yards off, whether +it was going to break on board or whether we would clear it. It is a +fascinating spectacle, this, and an hour often passed like five minutes +as I gazed with ever-increasing awe at the resistless power of the +huge, crested breakers.</p> + +<p>Then down to our room, where we read “Farthest North” aloud till noon, +when my wife made her first appearance. Dinner then occupied us till +nearly one, when we went on deck to walk for half an hour, if not too +rough. Down again to write up our journals, plot off the course on<span class="pagenum" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</span> +our own chart, and note down in the government book the meteorological +observations made at Greenwich noon. This brought us to four o’clock, +when we again went on deck to remain till dark, and then a book claimed +us until supper, a little after five o’clock. Deck once more from six +till seven, in spite of any weather; then books again until nine, when +we went up for a breath of air again before turning in.</p> + +<p>Exciting? No, truth compels me to admit that it was not, although +no doubt some of the days would have been lively enough for almost +anybody. Those who are sustained by excitement must never by any chance +allow themselves to be persuaded to try a deep-water voyage, no matter +how completely they may have convinced themselves of their fondness for +the sea. A true and abiding love for the sea is a very rare attribute +in any man. I mean that fondness for the ocean which enables him to +live contentedly and happily upon it for half a year at a time, and +to accept uncomplainingly whatever chance may provide. The monotony +of a twenty weeks’ voyage to ninety-nine per cent. of civilized +humanity would be nearly incalculable; and in the case of one sent to +sea for health’s sake, it is entirely conceivable that the depression +consequent upon such a voyage would, in some degree, counteract the +beneficial effects of sea-air. It is owing to a peculiar temperament +that a few people can stay at sea for an indefinite number of months +without in any way tiring of the life. To these few the state of the +weather and the direction of the wind are absolutely immaterial. A +calm of a fortnight or a month of head-winds, either in the Tropics or +the Southern Ocean, are regarded by them merely as events which they +expected to encounter when they sailed.</p> + +<p>In spite of everything said and written to the contrary, I<span class="pagenum" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</span> believe +that in every sailor, from seaman to master, his love for the sea is +never extinguished. Let them assert, times innumerable, that they hate +the life, and yet see how they all return to it after a little while +ashore. It is of no avail to argue that because a man is bred to the +sea he is incapacitated for duties ashore; I have known of several +ship-masters who, through influence, obtained lucrative positions in +various firms, but who resigned them, unable to further withstand the +magic influence which the deep sea exerts over those who have once +fallen under her resistless enchantment. Nor does the case of the +common sailor differ. I once knew a respectable foremast hand who +obtained the position of driver of a laundry-wagon in Boston. This was +a nice job, but I awaited developments; and, sure enough, in three or +four months he signed as bosun of a Japan-bound oil-ship. Even the most +shiftless of sailors could surely use a pick or shovel dirt ashore, yet +they prefer the less profitable and inconceivably more arduous duties +of the life before the mast, simply because they cannot overcome the +wondrous allurements of Old Ocean. Latitude, 28° 52′ south; longitude, +83° 12′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">August 8</span></p> + +<p>We have almost every reason to believe that we have taken the southeast +Trades. I say almost every reason, for the only cause for doubting is +that we are so far south yet, and the wind, after all, may not amount +to anything. In any event, we are all astonished at such an outburst +of luck, except the skipper, who testily replies to interrogations, +“This <i>may</i> go into the Trades; it certainly is <i>not</i> them +<i>yet</i>.” At 4.30 yesterday afternoon, just as we had composed +ourselves for the hazy, yellow calm that lay upon the sea, a light air +from astern overhauled us, and backing into the southeast in a few +minutes, breezed up from<span class="pagenum" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</span> that desirable quarter in a most refreshing +manner, so that ever since we have averaged seven knots. This, if it +lasts, is a most remarkable stroke of fortune, as ships often lie idle +for a week or more between the westerly and the southeasterly winds; +and to run from one into the other, with only an hour’s calm, is as +unusual as it is welcome. We are inclined to believe that, after all, +we will make the voyage in one hundred and thirty days,—that is, in +six weeks more. On this subject the old man is, of course, as dumb as a +lobster, and resents any such suggestions by obstinately staring in the +opposite direction; while Mr. Rarx, a man of great experience in the +North Pacific, which is now probably the only <i>bête-noir</i> left to +us, even goes so far as to say that five additional weeks will anchor +us in San Francisco Bay.</p> + +<p>We have now left behind us that most solitary and vast portion of +the South Pacific almost entirely devoid of the smallest fragments +of land, and we are entering that part thickly spattered with rocks +and islets that most people never heard of, not to mention the +thousands of islands to the westward that form the great clusters of +the Society, Friendly, Samoan, Gilbert, Ellice, Marquesas, Caroline, +New Hebrides, Ladrone, and Marshall groups. For instance, in our +neighborhood at present are the islets of San Felix, San Ambrosio, +Podesta, Sala-y-Gomez, and the Emily and Minnehaha rocks; doubtless +there are dozens of others besides, too insignificant to appear on a +chart of the world, such as I work with. These few, however, will serve +to show how thickly sown the Pacific is with insular obstructions; +and it is for this reason that this ocean, bar that part south of 30° +south, has never seemed to me as desolate or lonely as the Atlantic, +north or south. Behold how fittingly Nature has cleared the North +Atlantic of nearly every indication of land and has left an abundance<span class="pagenum" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</span> +of clear, open water, through which rush the great steamers which +connect Europe and America, safe in the knowledge that even if they +drifted about for months with disabled machinery there would be +practically nothing to interrupt their wanderings. The most remarkable +proof of this was the case of the large schooner “Fannie E. Woolston,” +timber-laden, which drifted about for thirty months, covering six +thousand miles in that time, an average of over three knots per hour, +without approaching land. This was ascertained by means of the reports +of many different vessels which passed close to the “Woolston” during +her perigrinations. Indeed, the only island that lies at all near the +track of steamers bound from the more northerly European ports to those +north of Baltimore is the terrible Sable Island, the “Graveyard of +the Atlantic,” in 44° north, 60° west, about two hundred miles east +of Halifax. More vessels are lost here than at any other spot in open +water, and its number of casualties are probably only exceeded by such +shoals as the Goodwin Sands.</p> + +<p>Turn, then, to the North Pacific, and it will be seen that, with the +exception of the higher northerly latitudes, through which lies the +great circle track between San Francisco or Vancouver and Japan, that +immense body of water is literally dusted with coral reefs and islands; +though it is necessary to examine a large chart to appreciate this, as +no geography will answer.</p> + +<p>There are recognized among men several great classes or divisions of +bores, such as those who magnify their own greatness, those who can +remember how much colder the winters used to be in their boyhood, +or, if in New York, those whose memory recalls the period when milch +cows lowed where the City Hall now stands, and swine rooted in the +dirt upon the site of the Post Office. But there remains yet a genus +of bores so infinitely surpassing those<span class="pagenum" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</span> mentioned that they may be +said to form an entirely different family. Fortunately for mankind, +comparatively few persons are victimized by them, by reason of their +profession; but in those parts where they do congregate, they are as +deadly as Mark Twain’s brain-fever bird. Allusion is made to those +venerable and crusty master-mariners who extemporize by the hour upon +that grand race of sailors who used to man the wind-jammers in days +of yore. Start them once on this subject, and woe to the anguished +wretch snared in their toils. One would think, in listening to them, +that they were talking about an extinct race who inhabited the seas +about the middle of the nineteenth century, and, like the apteryx and +platypus, had been suddenly and mysteriously exterminated; and when +one ventures to suggest that surely there must be some resemblance to +those exalted beings in the men who now sail before the mast, these +aged sea-hedgehogs bristle up and fly in a passion as they descant upon +the puny breed who now defile the honorable name of sailor with their +pampered notions and blubber-head stupidity. These persons ought to be +confined in some retreat for the rest of their lives; the disease is +incurable and terribly infectious, for every sea-captain over fifty +years of age suffers more or less from the unhappy malady.</p> + +<p>It is true that the steamer has cut huge swaths in the sailing-ship +trade, but there are still a vast number of square-riggers left which +pay good dividends. It seems to be the prevalent opinion that steam +has spoiled seamen for sailing-ship work, but in reality the men who +ship for long voyages never do anything else, and let steamers severely +alone. Many good men, no doubt, begin their careers as lamp-trimmers, +etc., in steamers, and usually remain in them, and in this way sailing +ships, no doubt, lose a number of fine men; but it is well to bear in +mind that deep-water<span class="pagenum" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</span> and steamship foremast hands are very different +beings in many respects.</p> + +<p>As noted in an earlier page, some people are crying now that as soon as +the Central American canal is cut through it will be the instantaneous +death-knell of the long-voyage sailing vessel, but those who really +understand the business of transportation by water do not agree to this +by any means. Here are the words of Arthur Sewall, than whom few, if +any, are more competent to speak on the matter: “As long as the wind +blows and water flows there will be sailing ships built and business +to keep them busy. There will always be a chance for them to compete +against steam in traffic where time is not a factor, or where delay +is actually a good thing. For instance, there is the wheat crop. In +July or August it begins to be ready for delivery, and in a short time +the whole year’s supply is ready for shipment. But the consumption +of a crop stretches over a whole year. Shipping wheat in sailing +vessels consumes several months’ time, which would otherwise require +the storing of the wheat. Sailing freights are actually less than +steam freights, plus storage charges. So, you see, here is business +which sailing ships can hold. Then, again, take railroad materials, +especially rails, which are manufactured faster than they can be used, +and where the delay of sail over steam is better than storage. Of +course, as in any other business, it is a case of the survival of the +fittest, and as smaller ships are relatively more expensive than large +ones, small ships cannot make money, and will have to make way for +large ones.”</p> + +<p>An excellent precedent in favor of the continuance of sailing vessels +is that subject in connection with the Suez Canal. When this was a +thing accomplished it was said that no more square-riggers would go out +around Good Hope; yet consider the enormous amount of sail tonnage that +is<span class="pagenum" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</span> despatched every year to India, China, Australia, and Japan, for +it is computed that eight hundred sailing vessels double Agulhas every +year in both directions, and as but few of the ships in the Eastern +trade have a carrying capacity of less than thirty-five hundred tons, +the amount of merchandise that passes the southern extremity of Africa +per annum foots up the imposing total of at least seven million tons.</p> + +<p>Mr. Goggins appeared at dinner to-day in a frock-coat! Can one conceive +the effect produced upon the mind by the contiguity of a frock-coat and +a red-flannel shirt. Certainly not. No one could unless he had seen it. +Goggins was monstrously proud of it, too, in spite of its being several +sizes too small for him, and ostentatiously got up during the soup and +officiated at the drawing of a pitcher of root-beer from the “kag” in +the corner, during which evolution he suddenly became embarrassed at +the unwonted attention centered upon himself, and in some way managed +to upset the pitcher all over the floor; and when he sat down he was +in such a state of excitement that his nasal whistlings and obligatos +were more piercing than ever before. And just think of this creature’s +name, Leander! Oh, heavens, it is too much! Latitude, 26° 54′ south; +longitude, 84° 50′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">August 9</span></p> + +<p>Ninety days at sea, and another month cannot take us in, nor do we +desire it, in spite of our surroundings. The wind has freshened +constantly, and, being to the eastward of southeast, it has sent us +along at an eight-knot clip, steady and true, and we have done one +hundred and ninety miles in the twenty-four hours by the log, for we +have had no sights for three or four days. The temperature is almost +perfect, about 65° day and night, and as there is no sun<span class="pagenum" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</span> to dazzle +one, reading on deck has once more become a joy.</p> + +<p>Yesterday afternoon MacFoy returned Nansen’s “First Crossing of +Greenland,” which he borrowed a few days ago; he is an intelligent man +and knows all of Nordenskjold’s works pretty thoroughly. There is a +notion, though, to which he clings with characteristic Scotch tenacity; +in spite of everything, he insists that Nansen started upon his last +great voyage in a steam whaler from San Francisco.</p> + +<p>But if this fellow is well read, what can be said of old Kelly, in +the mate’s watch. We pumped together yesterday afternoon and had much +conversation, during which he said that he hailed from Charleston, +but that his family had moved north to Troy when the war broke out, +and that his parents had brought him up strictly and decently. He +volunteered no reason for having turned sailor, but branched off +into literature, beginning with a pertinent quotation from Burns +and another from Moore. These led him on, and he expressed great +admiration for ancient history, concluding with a well-turned eulogy +on Gibbon’s “Rome,” with illustrations for preferring it to any other +account of that great empire. At first it seems extraordinary to find +so intelligent a man before the mast, living a beast’s life, and +surrounded by men with whom he has but little in common. Yet such +fellows are by no means uncommon at sea, for one often happens upon a +man in a Cape Horner’s forecastle whom Nature did not intend should be +there.</p> + +<p>How different is old Kelly’s conversation from that of the mate, +especially at dinner and supper, when he shouts out his witless jokes! +To-day he burst in with the following silly story, and it was totally +irrelevant to what we were talking about: “There was a hold feller I +knoo onct that lived in the country, and when ’e saw the telegrapht +wires<span class="pagenum" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</span> put hup past ’is farm, ’e ’ung a pair ’o boots on ’em to send +’em to ’is son.” At the conclusion of such pleasantries his sense of +humor is so agitated that he seems upon the brink of spasms, and his +temporal arteries swell out as big as lead-pencils, while he chortles +and wheezes and gasps like an old tattered bellows.</p> + +<p>What quaint expressions sailors have, too! Mr. Rarx was talking about +athletics last night, and incidentally asked who was now the greatest +“hammer-heaver”; it must be remembered that objects at sea are never +thrown, they are always hove.</p> + +<p>As we approach the final quarter of the voyage we cannot help wishing +that we were going to land at Calcutta as we did before. Oh, the +incomparable delight, the unbounded pleasure of those two months in +India which followed the termination of our voyage in the “Mandalore”! +The memories of those nine weeks in British India carry with them a +charm perfectly indescribable; and were it given us to visit but one +more country on the globe during our lifetime, we would unhesitatingly +choose another stay in the land of the Himalayas. Latitude, 24° 28′ +south; longitude, 87° 5′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">August 10</span></p> + +<p>Moderate southeasterly breezes, a smooth sea, and magnificent weather. +He who would not be happy here now must needs be hard to please. At +midnight we cut the circle of Capricorn, and have, happily, once +more entered the torrid zone, after an absence of fifty days, for it +was on June 20 that we passed Capricorn in the Atlantic. Verily, it +doesn’t seem as though almost two months have elapsed since we first +sighted the “Judas Dowes” that Sunday in the latitude of Rio. How time +speeds on at sea! A week does not seem longer than twenty-four hours, +and before<span class="pagenum" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</span> we realize it they will be making ready the anchor. Our +progress is very gratifying, though the perversity of the skipper will +not allow him to believe or even to suppose that we have taken the +Trades. He has surprised us much in the last few days by going down +on the main-deck and assisting in the repair of the old sails. See +how inconsistent he is! He considers himself so infinitely above the +sailors that mere proximity to them under other circumstances, even +for a moment, carries infection with it; yet now, down he stalks to +the main-deck, off comes his coat, and down he drops flat, his short +fat legs sticking wide out before him like a brownie’s, as he turns to +in a cluster of the defiling sailors. For some days he sewed merrily +away on top of the deck-house, which was a different affair altogether, +and sail-making is a very agreeable pastime. But we were immeasurably +astonished at the arrogant Scruggs’s consorting thus with the foe.</p> + +<p>As the captain and I were pacing the poop at ten o’clock last evening, +the sky at the time being cloudless and the moon almost full, suddenly, +as we turned to go aft, we saw, over our shoulders, a dazzling glare +of light from forward, like a very bright lightning-flash, and, +turning quickly, we observed a ball of fire shoot by at right angles +to our course and disappear behind the foretop-gallant-sail. “What was +that?” said I. “Oh, that was just a meteor or whatever you call it,” +answered the skipper; “you often see ’em hereabouts. Last voyage one +bursted near the ship at night at the dark o’ the moon somewhere about +15° south, and most scared all hands to death.” Such exhibitions are +met with in all parts of the world, even in cold, high latitudes. I +remember the case of the large British ship “Cawdor,” Captain Jardella, +during one of her recent voyages from Swansea to San Francisco. +She made a very long passage on this occasion of one hundred and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</span> +eighty-four days. She had a terrible battering in the Southern Ocean, +and reported on arrival that off Cape Horn an enormous meteor plunged +into the sea with a stunning explosion, so close as to flood the decks.</p> + +<p>We learned last evening of a horrid accident that occurred on this ship +six weeks before we sailed on the present voyage. The mate spun the +yarn in these words: “We had just warped into the docks in Brooklyn to +discharge, when a gang o’ stevedores came over the side to rig the gear +for unloadin’. ‘Where’s the cargo pendant?’ says the boss stevedore. +‘There it is,’ says I, ‘and there’s a gantline, too,’ I says, pointin’ +to a coil o’ brand-noo manila. Well, they began for to rig the falls, +while I went into the cabin for dinner. I seen one o’ the fellers on +the mainyard as I went in, but I didn’t think no more about it for +maybe ten minutes, when I heard a sickenin’ crash, and out I jumped. +Did you ever hear a man fall from aloft? Hit’s awful, sir. When I got +out on deck there was a lot o’ stevedores standin’ around lookin’ at +somethin’ on the main-’atch. I didn’t want to look at what I knew it +was, but I had to; so I shoved my way through, and there lay the big, +heavy man I’d seen on the mainyard. I didn’t see anythin’ wrong with +him first off till I went round on t’other side, and there was his head +cracked open just as if you’d dropped a mushmellon on the ground, and +the hinsides was spattered all over the ’atch cover. Plenty o’ these +here stevedores git hurt, and often it’s the fault o’ rotten gear, and +then there’s a case ag’in’ the ship. But I’m too hold a bird to git +took in like that, and I always gives ’em brand-noo rope.”</p> + +<p>It is strange that more sailors are not killed by falling from aloft, +for they not only appear to be, but really are, very careless, and +two or three of our men have more than once just saved themselves +from tremendous falls. Not<span class="pagenum" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</span> long ago that handsome four-masted ship +“Puritan” lost two men from the upper foretop-sail-yard, only two +hundred miles from Sandy Hook, bound out to Hiogo; and it is a serious +matter to start an eighteen-thousand-mile voyage short two hands, when +ships are allowed to go to sea in these days with twenty seamen instead +of thirty. Latitude 22° 19′ south; longitude, 89° 15′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">August 11</span></p> + +<p>Still no change in anything but the thermometer, the instrument at +mid-day showing 70° for the first time in many weeks. How superb, how +glorious this weather surely is! There is not too much sun to render +sitting anywhere on deck at all unpleasant, yet we have enough to give +us all the necessary observations; the soft, rich southeast Trades come +flowing smoothly over the quarter, while the ocean, the limitless South +Pacific, lies motionless to the horizon, save for the brittle, little +cat’s-paws that spangle the royal blue of this great but placid ocean. +Oh, the enjoyment of these balmy days! Oh, the unutterable charm of +the sea when for days together the ship moves serenely over its quiet +surface with nothing to interrupt the profound peace to be obtained +only in the solitude of the oceans!</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“Oh! the sea, the sea, the open sea,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The pure, the fresh, the ever free.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Without a mark, without a bound,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">It runneth the earth’s wide regions round.”</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>Although everything in nature is so somnolent, not so the sailors; all +day long both watches have wrought like bees unbending the heavy, new +sails and sending aloft the old fine-weather ones. The mending was +finished yesterday, and the old, brownish-gray canvas looks very dull +after the glare of the new duck and changes the whole<span class="pagenum" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</span> appearance of +the ship. This is another point of usefulness in the donkey-engine, +for steam was got up this morning, and the different sails were sent +whizzing aloft like sacks of corn into a mill in a tenth of the time +that would have been necessary in manual labor. Nor be it supposed +that the sails of a two-thousand-ton ship are feather weights, for our +main-sail alone would tip the balance at eight hundred pounds.</p> + +<p>Last evening was the first occasion for at least two months on which we +have been able to eat our 5.15 o’clock supper without lamplight; and it +was a very grateful change to see the mellow rays of the setting sun +streaming in at the open door, instead of the weak flicker of a very +bad lantern. The cheerful air of the saloon was the cause of further +very great volubility on the part of the mate, and he told the only +humorous joke (is this tautology?) that he has uttered on the passage. +He said that his wife once asked him why it was that a captain couldn’t +keep tally of the size of his anchor so that he wouldn’t have to weigh +it every time he left a harbor. This, for Goggins, wasn’t bad.</p> + +<p>Some days ago we finished “Farthest North,” and so lucid and +straightforward are his writings that we seem to know Fridjof Nansen +personally. Three great characteristics stand forth pre-eminently in +this book,—manliness, lack of affectation, and the total absence of +the “I am.” Latitude, 20° 23′ south; longitude, 91° 20′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">August 12</span></p> + +<p>Somewhat more cloudy to-day, and, since the morning watch, the Trades +have been a good deal stronger, though last night the wind dropped to +force 3, the average for the week having been force 4. A noticeable +fact is that even though the weather is so cool for this latitude, 70° +at noon, the Cape pigeons are still with us; I thought that they<span class="pagenum" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</span> would +have left us long since, for on the other voyage we saw our last pigeon +in 30° south. One of the birds has been following us for weeks; we can +always pick him out by the fact that two of his right-wing quills are +broken, which renders him conspicuous at quite a distance.</p> + +<p>The ship was pumped out with the donkey last night, after the sails +were all bent, and having had no exercise for some days, the men having +pumped only at four in the morning on account of sail-making, etc., I +was constrained to take hold of the handle-bar and follow the wheel +around, which afforded even more exercise than the ordinary way. If the +men maintain constantly thirty strokes to the minute it is good work; +whereas, with the donkey whirling the pumps around at more than sixty, +the very exertion necessary to keep up with this speed is more than +considerable. It is attended, too, with some danger of bodily harm; +for if your foot should slip on the wet deck and you did not instantly +let go the handle-bar, you would either be jerked over the wheel and +slammed down on the other side, or at the next revolution the bar would +catch you under the chin and knock your lower jaw into bone-dust. The +captain conjectured later on that he, too, needed some exercise, for +he went down and worked away with ferocious abandon for perhaps five +minutes, standing forth in the bright moonlight a most ridiculous +object. For his short, plump, little body was taxed to the very utmost +to keep up with the machine, and when his coat-tails whisked wildly +about and he staggered now and then to keep his balance, and his arms +were jerked back and forth like shuttles, his coat up between his +ears, he looked like John Gilpin in a cyclone. But funniest of all was +his face. Whenever he exerts himself he always glares over at us to +ascertain whether we are laughing at him or not; and last night, as he +gazed up at us over the whizzing bar, with<span class="pagenum" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</span> bursting cheeks and popping +eyes, we thought we had never seen so ludicrous a sight; even more +droll than the other day while he was “chinning” himself on the weather +mizzen-sheerpole, when he peered over his shoulder at us with so +distorted and writhing a countenance that we thought he was strangling. +The skipper has a clipping-machine, with which he has almost denuded +his head and face of their shaggy masses, and he insists that my own +thick growth of hair and beard will be uncomfortable in hot weather, +which is no doubt true; but when he offered to “run the machine over +your whiskers,” as he expressed it, I thought it best to risk them as +they are. Fancy reaping one’s beard with clippers!</p> + +<p>Mention has not been made of a certain dish that was placed upon the +supper-table a few nights after the last pig had been killed. In one +of the compartments of the rack was a plate of cold salt beef; while +in the other was something that we thought was mighty good, judging +from the fragrance that rose from beneath the cover. When the latter +was removed, though, there lay revealed some queer-looking, black +fragments that might have been anything rather than meat. It turned out +to be pig’s flesh right enough, but no one could guess what portions +of his anatomy they were. Some of the objects were cylindrical; these +were sections of the creature’s tongue. Others were very irregular and +unusual-looking; these were the ears; while a villanous mass that stood +aloof from the rest was recommended by the skipper as the heart. “I +think you’ll like that,” he observed, “though some do say there’s too +much muscle in it.”</p> + +<p>The only really unsuccessful article manufactured by the merry little +Cantonite is the pie-crust. It is very attractive and tempting to +contemplate, which makes the reality harder to bear, for it is the only +wholly indigestible article of food<span class="pagenum" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</span> I ever came across; you can even +feel your teeth gliding smoothly over flakes of sticky lard scattered +freely through it. Nothing but hydrochloric acid could have the +least solvent effect upon it. Oh, yes, there is something else,—the +captain’s digestive organs. It will be recalled that when we first came +on board he mentioned that he was a dyspeptic; but goodness, gracious +me! it is a revelation to watch him denude meat or fruit pies of the +armor-plate which invests them. He has another favorite dish, too, +that he usually eats for breakfast; it looked familiar at first, and +we tried some, but instantly desisted. It was like large grains of +sand; the captain called it boiled hominy. Latitude, 18° 25′ south; +longitude, 93° 55′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">August 13</span></p> + +<p>Fresh Trades, moderate sea, and dazzling skies were ours during this +day, and we made more than two degrees of latitude and only five +miles less than three of longitude. It is glorious, and everything +has assumed a tropical aspect: the sea, which undulates in swinging, +dark-blue heaves, topped with sparkling froth; and the air, which +sleepily fans one with its soft, drowsy breath. Even the men have begun +to show the influence of warmer climes, and duck and dungaree garments, +long buried in the noisome and impenetrable mysteries of a sailor’s +chest, have suddenly bloomed forth like lilies in the spring. We have +kept away a little to the westward of northwest so as to cross the line +in about 116°.</p> + +<p>The pumping took place last night at 7.30 as usual, and I took a hand +in it, alongside of that villain, Tim Powers (he of the wounded arm), +while opposite to us rose and fell the cadaverous countenance of Paddy. +Neither of the mates was within hearing distance, but no one spoke till +Jimmie Rumps, the little bosun, called<span class="pagenum" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</span> out “Let her rest a minute,” +and then Tim grew loquacious.</p> + +<p>“I’m afeard this is too long a v’yage for the lady, sor; it’s a sight +o’ sea.”</p> + +<p>“Yes,” I answered, “but it’s not that that bothers us. We went out +to Calcutta a couple of years ago and were at sea a hundred and +twenty-seven days, so we knew it might be a hundred and fifty when we +started.”</p> + +<p>“Is thot so, sor,” said Tim, with immense energy and interest,—“to +Calcutta? A grand place. If yez don’t mind, what was the name o’ the +ship?”</p> + +<p>“The ‘Mandalore.’”</p> + +<p>“Oh,” with great satisfaction and relief, “an English ship. I’ll bet +yez had a different——”</p> + +<p>“Shake her up again, boys,” came from the main-hatch in Jimmie’s thin +little voice, and we turned to in silence till the mate’s growl, +“That’ll do the pumps,” put an end to the job. Then I asked Paddy how +he was enjoying himself.</p> + +<p>“To speak the truth,” he answered, wearily, “I’d rather be in me grave +than where I am, and this is the first time I ever said such a thing +aboard ship.”</p> + +<p>“Why, what’s the matter?” I asked him. “You’re always skylarking with +the cook and steward.”</p> + +<p>“Well, what’s the good in tryin’ to make a row?” he philosophically +demanded.</p> + +<p>“Don’t you get enough to eat?”</p> + +<p>“Ye-e-e-s, but it’s not what I’ve heard the mate tell you it’s like. +It’s the drivin’ we mind. But even that’s not the worst of it; you +can’t do a thing to please the mate or the old man. I dunno about Mr. +Rarx; you know I ain’t in his watch, but I guess he’s no better than +most second mates, and I guess you know what <i>that</i> means. Work, +work, work till you split yer finger-ends and then kicked<span class="pagenum" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</span> around and +thumped for a farmer. But I’m not makin’ a row,” he added, “only you +asked me.”</p> + +<p>Paddy, it must be said, is one of a rare species, a fair-minded sailor, +which I discovered some time ago by his taking the mate’s part when +telling me of some trifling incident that happened on board.</p> + +<p>A couple of hours later, it being the second mate’s watch, I asked him +to tell me honestly why he liked American ships better than others, +knowing that he has sailed in English vessels.</p> + +<p>“Well, the principal thing is the pay,” he replied. “It’s a good +deal better in our ships than in foreigners; and the cabin table’s +generally better, too. Now, there’s the British ship ‘Fulwood’ (a +fine steel ship she is), I know they don’t have soft bread on the +table but once a week.” It seemed to me that this would be quite a +recommendation for the “Fulwood,” for we have yet to see soft bread +aboard ship much better than a worn-out sponge. But as for the wages, +he is certainly right. Take the wages out of Hamburg as an example. +The chief officers of the largest and fastest express steamers receive +an amount equivalent to only sixty dollars of our money! What sort of +remuneration is that for a man of ability, in many cases a university +graduate, a man second in authority aboard a ten-thousand-ton mail +steamer rippling through the most crowded ocean in the world at +twenty-one knots, with fifteen hundred souls below-decks? And it makes +one positively angry to think of a human being like Goggins, a densely +ignorant and practically worthless creature, a person who can’t work +a traverse and get the same answer twice, receiving the same amount +as mate of a wind-jammer! Why, our steward, a Malay and a man of low +intellect, has a good deal more than half as much wages as the first +officer of the “Normannia” or “Augusta Victoria”!<span class="pagenum" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</span> It is positively +incredible. Latitude, 16° 14′ south; longitude, 96° 30′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">August 14</span></p> + +<p>Another day, beautiful beyond expression. We never remember one in all +our sea experience that was as fine. The sun poured down from a sky +without a shred of cloud, and the Trades, still as fresh as ever, came +singing so sweetly and cheerfully over the starboard quarter, that you +were moved to lean back in your chair and think, “Who is so happy as I?”</p> + +<p>Even if the weather were not so delightful, our fine progress would +cover a multitude of grievances, for we have done five hundred and +eighty-six miles in three days, a continuous average of eight knots. If +credible, the nights are even finer than the days, and we sat late on +deck last evening plunking away on the banjo, with everything steeped +in the white light of the moon just past the full. So wonderfully +brilliant were her beams that the shadows of the weather mizzen-rigging +cast upon the immense concave expanse of the main-sail stood forth as +from an arc-light. The serenity of such a night is almost unearthly.</p> + +<p>The first step in the rehabilitation of the ship for port has been +progressing for two days,—the tarring down of the standing rigging. It +is always the dirtiest job aboard ship, and the men are plastered from +crown to toe with the sticky fluid. Next after this comes the painting, +then the holy-stoning, and lastly the varnishing of what little bright +work there is on the poop.</p> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp90" id="i_358a" style="max-width: 142.375em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/i_358a.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption class="caption"><p>Tarring down</p></figcaption> +</figure> + +<p>When at the pumps last evening I learned that the men had been deeply +impressed with my having assisted the donkey the other night. Murphy +especially seemed to extract much amusement from the fact, and when I +told him that some exercise was necessary to health, he said<span class="pagenum" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</span> that he +never allowed that subject to bother him, adding, “There’s one thing +I’m just grand at,—lyin’ in me bunk.” His appearance substantiates +this statement, for he is as round and rugged as he was three months +ago; I truly believe that he is the only man forward who doesn’t bear +the marks of either Cape Horn or a belaying-pin. On the other hand, +Louis the Gaul is the saddest and most dejected-looking man I ever saw. +He has at all times that melancholy, dispirited look that one sees in +the eyes of a captive ourang-outang. We talked together last night, and +he informed me that this was his first American ship, and, please God, +it would be his last. In very broken English, and in the deferential +tones of a foreigner, he asked, “Sair, do your laws allow men to be +treated as ze men are treated aboard zees sheep?”</p> + +<p>“No,” I answered; “but so far there does not seem to have been any +attempt made by the United States authorities to enforce the laws they +have made.” Jacquin didn’t know enough English to go more deeply into +the subject, and the talk drifted to the French navy, in which he has +served sixteen years altogether; and when I told him that I knew the +“Jean Bart” very well, his delight was child-like. Then he imparted +a bit of rather astonishing news by saying that a man who has served +for twenty years in the French navy (and it need not be all in one +stretch) is pensioned by the government at three francs and a half per +day. Besides possessing the second most powerful navy, France has some +rattling fine square-riggers, such as the “La France,” the largest +sailing vessel in the world bar the “Potosi,” the “Dunquerque,” and the +“Quevilly,” the greatest tank sailing ship afloat, carrying one million +gallons of oil in bulk between Philadelphia and Rouen.</p> + +<p>Our pigeons have left us, and well they might, considering the +latitude. What a distance they followed us!<span class="pagenum" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</span> From 30° south in one +ocean to 16° south in the other, and from the forty-fifth to the one +hundredth meridian. Quite a stretch of salt-water that. Mother Carey’s +chickens have come as a sort of compensation, hovering over our wake +and darting down between the waves like swallows whizzing through the +air after insects. Latitude, 14° 5′ south; longitude, 99° west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">August 15</span></p> + +<p>Shall it be written that this day is the finest of all? It is even +so, and I pray the reader to bear with me, and to remember that if +he were in my place he would no doubt give expression to the same +thought. If the entire voyage, except that part lying in the Pacific +between the southern tropic and the equator, were composed of gales +and snow-storms, it seems as though these winds would atone for any +amount of previous distress and inconvenience. It seems wonderful that +the atmosphere can possess simultaneously such exhilaration and such a +smooth, luscious balminess. Oh, superb, glorious southeast Trades, thy +equal is not in the world!</p> + + +<p class="center">THE TRADE-WIND’S SONG.</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Oh, I am the wind that the seamen love,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">I am steady and strong and true;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">They follow my track by the clouds above</div> + <div class="verse indent2">O’er the fathomless, tropic blue.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">For close by the shores of the sunny Azores</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Their ships I await to convoy;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">When into their sails my constant breath pours,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">They hail me with turbulent joy.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">I bring them a rest from tiresome toil,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Of trimming the sail to the blast;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">For I love to keep gear all snug in the coil,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">And the sheets and the braces all fast.</div><span class="pagenum" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</span> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">From the deck to the truck I pour all my force,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">In spanker and jib I am strong;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">For I make every course to pull like a horse.</div> + <div class="verse indent2">And worry the great ship along.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">As I fly o’er the blue I sing to the crew</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Who answer me back with a hail;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I whistle a note as I slip by the throat</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Of the buoyant and bellying sail.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">I laugh when the wave leaps over the head,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">And the jibs through the spray-bow shine;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">For an acre of foam is broken and spread</div> + <div class="verse indent2">When she shoulders and tosses the brine.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Through daylight and dark I follow the bark,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">I keep like a hound on her trail;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I’m strongest at noon, yet under the moon</div> + <div class="verse indent2">I stiffen the bunt of her sail.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">The wide ocean through for days I pursue,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Till slowly my forces all wane;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Then in whispers of calm I bid them adieu,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">And vanish in thunder and rain.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Oh, I am the wind that the seamen love,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">I am steady and strong and true;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">They follow my track by the clouds above</div> + <div class="verse indent2">O’er the fathomless, tropic blue.</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>Thus has Thomas Fleming Day delightfully written of the flowing Trades.</p> + +<p>The men are busily engaged shearing away the great mops of hair that +protected their heads in cold weather. Coleman (a man with a baneful +eye and one who ought to be watched) seems to be the most accomplished +tonsorial artist in the ship; he has already operated on half a dozen +men, and all hands but one have assumed that appearance of cleanliness +usual among sailors in the tropics. The exception is Tim, who, bar Mr. +Goggins, is the dirtiest man on board. And now for a secret, profound +and extraordinary!<span class="pagenum" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</span> Let the peruser of these pages prepare himself +for the concussion; let him brace himself for the impending blow! Mr. +Goggins was seen to go forward to the galley an hour ago and return +with a basin of water! Can it be possible that he is about to submit +his face and hands to the purification of a quart, a whole quart of +fresh water? But no; this could not be. Let us banish the thought. He +would perish of shock. Yet it must be for this that he fetched the +water, for it is the only conceivable use to which he could put it, +so we live in hopes of a change at supper. We have never anywhere +come in contact with a person so irreclaimably obnoxious, and we can +only wonder why the captain allows him to come to the table in such a +condition. If a man wants to be dirty, it’s his own personal affair; +but when he becomes objectionable to others, steps ought to be taken to +remedy the evil.</p> + +<p>By far the most agreeable persons on board are the steward and +cook, not to mention David MacFoy, who is so much more pleasant and +entertaining than the rest that he forms a class all by himself. The +cook, though, is a jolly little man, and welcomed us with much homely +attention when we invaded his precinct the other day to learn how to +make curry properly. To start with, it is hard to get good curry-powder +even in India, and that which we brought back with us from Calcutta in +glass jars is not as good as that which can be bought in San Francisco +in square tins, that city being the only place in the United States +where this particular sort can be obtained. But besides the necessity +for good powder, there are certain proportions of chopped onion, flour, +butter, etc., to be added in its preparation, so that in order to learn +how to make curry properly it is necessary to witness the process as +performed by an Indian or a Chinaman.</p> + +<p>A rather interesting little fact to us to-day is that this is<span class="pagenum" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</span> the +first occasion on which three figures have ever been necessary to +express our longitude. Latitude, 12° 5’ south; longitude, 101° 40′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">August 16</span></p> + +<p>Fear not. I do not intend to say how much more beautiful to-day is than +yesterday, though I should like to, and it is hard to refrain from +doing so in such weather; but more than enough has been said on this +subject. As a matter of fact, it is not quite so fine to-day, for the +wind is dead aft, so that the after-sails are the only ones that do +much good, and our run has not been quite up to the usual standard.</p> + +<p>This has been a grand cleaning day forward. Every movable object was +taken out of the forward house and spread on the forecastle-head in +the baking sun, and a curious sight did the men’s old clothes and +bedding present after lying mildewed and sodden for so many weeks. +They lay in a wretched heap, the outside of which was composed of +ancient, grimy bedticks, frowsy, ill-looking quilts, and disreputable, +mouldy mufflers. The forecastle itself was then swept cleanly out and +thoroughly washed with soap and water.</p> + +<p>We have scores of snow-white birds with us now, about the size of +common gulls, called bosuns. They are pretty creatures, with the most +remarkable tails; for, instead of the usual fan-shaped arrangement +of feathers, their bodies seem to be elongated into pointed spines, +so thin and sharp that it is almost impossible to see the extreme +end. These birds are very noisy and keep up a harsh croaking, whence +their name, as a bosun is supposed to live in a continual state of +exhortation. On coming up from supper last night just before six, we +saw a plump, little feathered creature bearing down upon us, which +had a very familiar<span class="pagenum" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</span> appearance; and great was our surprise a moment +later when we found that it was a Cape pigeon! Imagine one within six +hundred miles of the equator! He must have been the last survivor of +some vessel ahead of us, and, having abandoned her, concluded to stop +and see if he couldn’t find some scraps here. He looked very calm +sailing about on motionless wing among the flocks of bosuns and Mother +Carey’s chickens that appear, in comparison, to make so great an effort +at flying. This morning, though, we found that this, the last token of +Cape Horn, had vanished. Mr. Rarx, however, didn’t seem much surprised +at the appearance of the pigeon, and told us that he had seen them +often in the harbor of Callao in 12° south.</p> + +<p>In a maritime paper that the second mate showed us to-day there +was rather an interesting article concerning the naming of ships. +According to it, French merchant-vessels are usually called after +provinces, towns, wines, and victories, but never after men, except +the greatest men of French history. British ships are generally named +after mythological characters, lakes, bays, glens, and cities; German +vessels after rivers, ports, poets, states, and characters in German +literature. The Italians name theirs after characters in Italian +literature, and names of hope, courage, enterprise, and religion. +Spanish ships are almost always called after cities or the great +commanders in Spanish history. Norwegians and Swedes take the names of +localities dear to them; while American ships are given the names of +their owners, relatives, friends, or “any old thing.”</p> + +<p>The same paper contained a short dissertation on scurvy. I wonder +how many people there are who know that, according to the latest +researches, scurvy is not a disease produced by eating salt meat? For +many years Professor Torup, of the University of Christiania, has been +studying this dreaded malady, scurvy, in all its forms, and about +five<span class="pagenum" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</span> years ago he proved to his own satisfaction that it is produced +by ptomaine poisoning incident to putrefaction in meats which had not +been properly cured or preserved. Fridjof Nansen believed in this +theory, and when he was fitting out the “Fram” for her Arctic voyage +he took the most extraordinary precautions to have every can or barrel +of preserved meat that went on board in the best possible condition, +particularly the salt meats. The sequel to this care was that upon his +return every man on board was in perfect health, and had been during +the three years’ voyage; this has been considered sufficient proof +that it is poison in the meat, and not the salted meat itself, which +produces that most ghastly of all diseases. Latitude, 10° 8′ south; +longitude, 103° 56′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">August 17</span></p> + +<p>Still the same weather conditions, with a little more wind and, strange +to tell, a heavy ground-swell from the southwest. Imagine how hard +the gale must have been to drive the swell through thirty degrees of +latitude, as it is not probable that a wind strong enough to raise such +a sea would prevail north of 40° south. Soon, indeed, now we will enter +upon the last quarter of our voyage, and that portion of the Pacific +between the line and 40° north is at this season often responsible for +more long passages than any other part of the Cape Horn voyage. Many +a flyer has rolled booming across the equator on a record-breaking +trip, struck the Doldrums north of the line like running into a stone +wall, and added fifty days more to the passage before sighting the +Farallones. Just a year ago the “Shenandoah,” one of our fastest +vessels, was forty-six days sailing up to ’Frisco from the equator.</p> + +<p>Last night in the first watch I had a long talk with the second mate. +It seems that he and Mr. Goggins have had<span class="pagenum" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</span> words several times lately, +and as Mr. Rarx knows what we think of the mate, he unburdened his mind +in a very unusual manner. He says that Goggins would make a tip-top +mate of a garbage-dumper, but that he isn’t fit for a geordie brig, +much less a clipper ship, or what passes for a clipper in these days. +“But the worst of it is, he’s no seaman; and when my watch on deck +comes ain’t there a h—— of a fine mess, and I’ve got to do it all +over again. And look at his men, the state he’s got ’em into; there’s +not a man-jack o’ the whole lot that’ll turn a finger for him, with his +shoutin’ and hollerin’ and swearin’. I wonder the captain shipped such +a —— —— old cripple, for he knew him before. I’m gettin’ bloody +sick o’ the voyage. What’s the matter with the mate is that he came in +through the cabin-windows instead o’ the hawse-pipes.”</p> + +<p>All this and much more did Mr. Rarx pour forth, working himself into +quite a rage as he went along, and embellishing his discourse with +regular handspike oaths.</p> + +<p>In the American merchant service a mate always rises to that position +through the various grades from ordinary seaman up; but on British +ships boys (frequently gentlemen’s sons) sign for three years as +apprentices, live aft, and are taught navigation and seamanship +perfectly and practically by captains who are often privileged to write +R. N. R. after their names, paying, I think, about one hundred guineas +for this instruction. When this course is over they are fit for second +mate, and in another two years pass for mate and then master. How +different in America, where the law requires no examination for a man +before he goes in command of a sailing vessel! How Mr. Goggins could +rise to be mate from a cabin-boy without passing through the forecastle +is quite marvellous, as he has always sailed in Yankee ships. He is a +very obscure individual, though, and no doubt landed in the cabin in +some inscrutable manner.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</span></p> + +<p>Mr. Rarx, on the other hand, would make a good mate of a large yacht +were it not for his temper, which is very violent, and he has a way of +harboring up revenge for petty trifles. We have seen more bad treatment +of the men at the hands of Goggins; but my belief is that the second +mate does considerable hammering on his own account the other side of +the forecastle-house. It is a curious fact that so many bright men +stick at second mate all their lives, never rising any higher, simply +because they have never learned the use of a sextant, or how to copy +figures from an epitome, for that’s all that navigation amounts to as +carried on at sea. This is the great dividing line between first and +second mate, which a man like Rarx could overcome in a few weeks of +application. When a second mate has passed his thirty-fifth year his +pristine ardor and zeal begin to wane, for by that time his aspirations +for improvement are not so keen as they were; and if he is not a mate +shortly afterward, he never will be. Similarly, when a mate has passed +that age and never has had a command, he settles down in the capacity +of chief officer, and by the time he is forty he performs his duties +thereafter with no more ambition than the ox that hauls the plough. +Many ship-masters refuse to take either a mate or a second mate who is +more than thirty-five years old. Reference is made to sailing craft +only, as men in the transatlantic mail service not infrequently reach +fifty years before succeeding to one of the greyhounds. In the early +days of Yankee clippers scores of men went out as master at twenty-one, +and capable ones at that, as the records show.</p> + +<p>Whenever there is a pause in the conversation at meals now, Captain +Scruggs always fills in with some remarks about Nansen (or Naysen, as +he always calls him) and Arctic expeditions. It is remarkable with +what regularity he does this, and the mate as regularly asks in a +grieved tone,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</span> addressing no one in particular, “And will yer tell +me wot good hit’s a-goin’ to do when they do find the pole?” Then +the skipper indignantly asks him if he supposes that an expedition +is idle all the time in the ice; to which the mate replies, “Well, I +know there’s nothin’ to be found out about the land up there, cause +there hain’t none.” And then they go at it like a pair of quarrelsome +cats, till suddenly the old man fetches the table a whack and cries +out, “Very well, sir; you’re not here to argue; that’ll do, sir,” in +his fiercest tones. At such times he looks like the ogre of childhood. +These set-tos are extremely amusing, though, for neither knows anything +about the subject, and the air throbs with “magnetic poles,” “Arctic +circles,” and “phemomemoms.” By the way, it is interesting to know that +England held the record for the highest latitude for two hundred and +seventy-five years, or since Hudson’s voyage in 1607 to 1882, when the +record passed to the United States, to be wrested from her thirteen +or fourteen years later by the Norwegians. Let us hope that Peary, +whom Sir Clements Markham calls “the greatest living ice-traveller,” +will regain what we have lost, and this time succeed in attaining that +geographical point, the quest of which has resulted in the loss of such +splendid men as Franklin and de Long.</p> + +<p>Almost all of the painting aloft has been finished except the lower +masts. The topmast and lower mast-heads all glitter in the glory of a +coat of dark reddish-brown, and the rigging fairly scintillates in the +sun in its dress of glossy tar. Mr. Goggins says that he well remembers +the first wire-rigged sailing vessel seen in the United States. She was +a full-rigged London brig, and when she arrived in New York she looked +so neat and trim aloft that even the old shell-backs, who doubted the +efficacy of wire, were obliged to admit that in appearance, anyhow, she +was away<span class="pagenum" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</span> ahead of the old style. “But you wait till she strikes a gale +o’ wind,” said these Solons, “and then you’ll see.” And they didn’t +have long to wait, for on her return voyage to England she was totally +dismasted three hundred miles west of Cape Clear. Latitude, 8° 19′ +south; longitude, 105° 40′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">August 18</span></p> + +<p>A still fresher breeze to-day, but it is dead aft. But we are moving +so steadily in the same direction, northwest, that we slip through the +water without appreciating how fast we are going; and as each noon puts +us two degrees farther north, we ought to cross the line next Saturday. +Gradually, too, we have been gliding into warmer weather, and last +night we experienced, for the first time in the Pacific, the tremendous +heat of the equatorial regions. There is something inexpressibly +depressing to many people after a few days’ sojourn in the tropics; +something that seems to drain the vitality. Personally I have never +experienced this feeling, and exercise should never be omitted in hot +weather by robust persons, although it should not be severe, and ought +never be taken when the sun is more than ten degrees above the horizon.</p> + +<p>This morning as we were hanging over the side in the shade, watching +the copper slipping smoothly through the water, while a perfect +cataract of cool wind poured over us out of the lee side of the +cross-jack, we saw a disk of vivid green resting upon the surface of +the clear, blue depths. We thought it was a cluster of sea-grass till +the captain said, “Hello, there’s our first turtle.” So it proved to +be, and as the ship passed within a few feet of him we had an excellent +view of his broad, corrugated back, fully three feet across; he was +reposing in peaceful slumber as we slid past, with head retracted, but +feet and tail extended like a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</span> starfish, and he looked immeasurably +comfortable, resting so placidly on the water, indolently rising and +falling in the quiet sea; and we envied him, lying there in his clear, +cool element. Latitude, 6° 38′ south; longitude, 107° 44′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">August 19</span></p> + +<p>One hundred days at sea, and we celebrated the circumstance in real +old-fashioned, long-approved Yankee style. Last evening, immediately +after supper, we went up on the cabin-house and sat down to enjoy the +sunset. All at once we heard angry voices forward, and then Louis, the +Frenchman, shot head first out of the lee door of the carpenter-shop, +followed by the massive body of Chips himself, who held in his hand +a bludgeon. They were both in a passion. Louis dropped his hat as he +flew through the doorway, and as he stooped to pick it up, smack! came +the truncheon upon his flank. Then Louis straightened up, shot out +his fist, and smote Chips painfully on the chin; the latter returned +the blow, and in a second they were at it tooth and nail. Now, Louis +is a very active, powerful man, and in a long spell he would, no +doubt, wear the other out, but in close quarters he was no match for +the carpenter’s weight; for a few seconds Louis prevailed, but Chips +recovered, and, being a foot taller than the Gaul, he seized him by the +throat and backed him over towards the rail, against which he caused +Louis’s head to come into such frequent and violent contact that we +could hear the tattoo where we sat. Then Louis began his national, low +habit of kicking, but was unsuccessful in his contemptible trick, and +they were still in the throes of battle when the mate appeared and +cautiously hauled them apart. The shirts of both were in shreds and the +Frenchman was in a fearful rage. By and by Chips came aft to supper; he +bore no facial marks of the encounter save that he was very pale.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</span></p> + +<p>At seven o’clock I went up to one of the men, Charlie, and asked him +what the row was about. He said that, as far as he knew, Louis went +into the carpenter-shop to get some kerosene to cleanse the paint from +his hands, and, having no business in there without permission, Chips +had thrown him out. The carpenter, by the way, hasn’t been fair to +the men lately with their water. One day off Cape Horn, when he went +into the forecastle with the men’s allowance, one of them said to him, +thereby exhibiting an unusually good spirit, “Say, Chips, there’s no +good o’ givin’ us all that water in cold weather, we can’t drink it.” +Then when the hot weather came and the men grew thirsty, Chips refused +to give them more than they asked for off the Horn, though each man is +entitled here to four quarts per day.</p> + +<p>Well, then, we continued to sit where we were till after dark, +discussing the event; presently eight bells went, MacFoy came aft with, +“The watch is aft, sir,” to which the mate replied with the usual +growl, “All right; relieve the wheel and lookout,” and the starboard +watch came on deck. At about 8.15, in the midst of that deep, wonderful +silence that pervades a sailing ship at night, we were startled by loud +voices up near the main-mast, just where we couldn’t tell, as it was +pitch dark; immediately afterward, however, we recognized the voices of +Mr. Rarx and Louis, which quickly rose to shouting. The first sentence +that we caught was from the second mate, the words coming in jerks, as +though he had a man by the neck and was shaking him: “So you were in +there tryin’ to steal oil eh? You —— —— French —— —— ——.” To +which Louis answered in a loud voice, “I deed <i>not</i>, sair.” Then +came another broadside from Rarx, and again, “Etees <i>not</i> so, +sair.”</p> + +<p>At this point several voices broke in, and the old man then ran down +the weather poop-ladder to see what was<span class="pagenum" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</span> the matter. Suddenly a +death-like silence reigned for a few moments; then came a sound of +scuffling, and all at once Rarx cried out, “God! He’s stuck me, cap’n!”</p> + +<p>“What’s that?” yelled the skipper.</p> + +<p>“The damned French hound’s put a knife into me, sir!”</p> + +<p>Paralysis instantly fell upon all hands. The tension was fearful, but +was relieved somewhat by the steward’s opening the port cabin door, +allowing a broad path of light to stream forth into the darkness, +which had hitherto rendered the affair mysterious and horrible. It +fell upon a group of startled men by the main-mast, with the skipper +in the centre supporting the second mate, while the latter, pressing +his hands above his left hip, shuffled painfully aft. He was led into +the cabin, where he sat down upon the coal-box, and I pulled up his +shirt and exposed the wound. It was a wide gash in his side, a little +to the front of and just above the pelvis. The blow had evidently been +aimed at the groin, but in the darkness Louis had slightly missed. +Rarx’s clothes were somewhat blood-soaked, but the flow had ceased, +showing that probably none of the large arteries had been punctured. +Still, there was more than a probability that he had been dangerously, +nay, fatally, hurt, and even at that moment might be bleeding to death +internally, and we could not tell whether or no any of the vital organs +had been touched. The skipper ran at once for listerine, and together +we contrived to bind up the wound and put the man to bed. Then the old +man stepped out on the main-deck and shouted,—</p> + +<p>“Send that Frenchman aft, Mr. Goggins, and put the irons on him.”</p> + +<p>The mate went gingerly up to Louis, who, in the midst of a knot of men, +was raving like a maniac, and, seizing him gently by the arm, led him +aft. Oh, how that man raged and blasphemed! He was like an angry bull, +and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</span> his loud voice rang out far over the peaceful ocean and echoed and +reverberated high up overhead in the hollows of the upper sails.</p> + +<p>“Did you hear what ’ee call me, sair?” in shrill tones. “I, who have +bose fazair and mozair. <i>I weel not stand zat, sair.</i> I die +fairst; you can keel me, sair. And I, I stuck ’eem; I would cut ’eem +again, sair, or any one else, that call me zat name. <span class="smcap">I am a man, +sair.</span>” This last in a perfect shriek.</p> + +<p>Never a word said the old man. Then Louis turned on him, and, +insolently sneering, his head thrown back scornfully and one foot +advanced, he cried,—</p> + +<p>“And you, Capitaine Scruggs! What are you? I have been to sea twenty +year and nevair saw a capitaine like you before. You starve us! you +starve us! Why do you starve us? When we fairst left New York we ’ad +plentee to eat, zee food was waste, and now for seex wicks we have +had nossing at all. Bah! Peef! <i>You</i>, a man like <i>you</i>, a +capitaine!”</p> + +<p>At this juncture the skipper said abruptly, but without the least show +of anger, for which great credit is due him,—</p> + +<p>“Where’s the knife you cut the second mate with?”</p> + +<p>“Where zee knife, eh? Here zee knife. Now you see it, now you don’t. +Ha, ha!” And he jerked it over the side into the sea.</p> + +<p>All this time the mate was fussing with the irons, trying to find a +pair that would encircle his great wrists; but at length a pair was +found, locked on his arms, and he was led aft to the wheel-house, +several other pairs of irons in the mate’s hand clanking mournfully as +he walked. Into the after-division where the tiller works Louis was +hustled, and his hands were then fastened with a rope to a ring-bolt in +a carlin overhead, so that he had to stand upright all night.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</span></p> + +<p>And what was my wife doing all this time? When Rarx had cried that he +had been stabbed she had fled to her room, locking herself in, and sat +shivering until curiosity compelled her to open the door on a crack and +peep out; and when Louis and the mate stumbled along the alley-way by +our windows, it sounded to her like the tramp of a ball-and-chain gang.</p> + +<p>As soon as Louis was secured we turned our attention to the second mate +again, and after reaching the conclusion that there was no internal +hemorrhage, or, at least, none that our slight skill could detect, we +drew the edges of the wound together, into which you might easily have +thrust a plum, securing them with adhesive plaster, and then bound up +the cut with listerine-soaked cloths. Poor fellow! he had a bad night. +Two heavy doses of laudanum and a five-grain opium pill had no more +effect on him than so much nitre; and it was not until shortly before +eight this morning that he dozed away, only to be aroused by the clang +of the huge breakfast-bell just without his door. He is suffering +dreadfully, has a high fever, and has conceived the notion that he is +in slivers inside.</p> + +<p>At 8.15 this morning the after wheel-house door was opened, and the +captain asked Louis if there was anything that he wanted, to which the +Frenchman answered by turning his back with a shrug. Then the skipper +said to him, “I just came to tell you that you’re no longer a seaman +aboard this ship. You’re a prisoner, and will remain so till I hand you +over to the authorities in San Francisco.” Then breakfast, consisting +of burgoo, hard bread, salt beef, and coffee, was taken to him, and he +was left alone till one o’clock, when a pannikin of soup was carried to +him, which he refused, although he ate another piece of salt beef and +a huge piece of soft bread. The manacles are knocked off when he eats, +after which they are locked on<span class="pagenum" id="Page_319">[Pg 319]</span> again, and he is then left utterly +alone. He is not allowed to enter the forecastle upon any pretext, +and when it is necessary for him to go forward, the mate follows +immediately behind.</p> + +<p>At a little before nine this morning, as I was reading by the +wheel-house, Paddy, who was steering, leaned out and whispered, “Look, +the old man’s goin’ to read the riot act.” I glanced forward, and saw +that the ship’s company had been mustered aft on the main-deck, with +the captain glaring at them, but not in the least excited. I reached +the break of the poop just in time to hear what it was about. Said the +skipper: “I hear you men are finding fault with the food and say I’m +starving you; is that so?”</p> + +<p>Tim, with a villanous twist, came forward, and said, “It is, sor; and +we don’t get enough wather to wash our hands wid,” holding out two +dirty paws.</p> + +<p>“Not enough to wash your hands with, eh?” said the old man. “It looks +to me as if there was plenty of water over the side, and I believe +you’ve got enough salt-water soap. Is that all you’ve got to say?”</p> + +<p>“It is, sor,” said Tim.</p> + +<p>“Is there any one else in the same fix?” asked the skipper.</p> + +<p>Coleman then stepped out and said the same thing about the food and +water. Every one else seemed to find something mighty interesting in +the deck-seams.</p> + +<p>“All right. Mr. Goggins, you will see that the men are put on +government allowance from now till I see fit to stop it. You can go +forrad,” he added to the men.</p> + +<p>It must be explained that on Yankee ships it is not customary to put +men on the allowance prescribed by law as it is on foreign ships. On +some of our ships the men are fed very well and on others miserably. +We began here by giving all sorts of extra things to the men, +apple-sauce,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_320">[Pg 320]</span> cheap jam, butter, etc., and when these “delicacies” ran +out the men thought it strange, and then by and by, according to some +of the most trustworthy of the sailors, the bread and meat themselves +began to grow less and less. It would be much better if long-voyage +American ships would adhere to the government allowance, and not give +the men sweets one month and then suddenly stop them entirely; such a +course always breeds discontent; and I have noticed that the mates have +not been able to get any more work out of the men here even when they +were luxuriating in their jam and butter, etc., than they did on the +English “Mandalore,” where everything was weighed out to the ounce, and +no “fixins.”</p> + +<p>The serenity that ought to accompany a sea-voyage has been savagely +dissipated, for go on deck and approach the wheel-house, and you +instinctively recoil when you think that it perhaps contains a +murderer. Go below to meals, and the smile vanishes from your face as +your thoughts revert to the wounded man groaning in his dingy cavern. +Over the ship hovers a silence such as falls upon a community when +Death stalks through its midst. The men look grave, the mate gives his +orders in low tones, and instead of the ringing chanties, the halliards +are tautened up to a muffled “oh ho”; and the pumps would revolve in +utter silence but for their own grinding clank.</p> + +<p>As for the day, it was magnificent, and we continue to surge along over +a sparkling ocean. Latitude, 4° 30′ south; longitude, 109° 58′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">August 20</span></p> + +<p>After the excitement and turmoil incident to such an affair as happened +yesterday, or rather the night before last, it is hard to get at the +real facts of the case until the agitation calms down. Therefore it +was not until a little<span class="pagenum" id="Page_321">[Pg 321]</span> while ago that we learned the truth about the +row between Louis and Chips. It appears that before stowing away the +heavy suit of sails when they had been unbent, some slight repairs were +necessary on the lower foretop-sail. They were completed day before +yesterday, and the sail was carefully rolled and tied up. The men were +ordered to rinse the paint off their hands with kerosene, furnished +them by the carpenter, so that they should leave no finger-marks on +the white duck. Afterward, for some unknown reason, Louis wanted more +oil, and personally went into the carpenter-shop to get it. Now, it is +one of the strictest rules aboard all ships that no sailor shall ever +enter the carpenter-shop in the absence of Chips; and when the latter, +no doubt in an ugly mood, found Louis in there, he threw him out. +After the fight the Frenchman was in a blind passion, and there were +probably two reasons for his taking summary vengeance upon the second +mate. In the first place, I have often seen him flush up with anger +at the way in which some of the men have been treated, this being his +first American ship; and he probably determined that if either mate +laid hand on him unlawfully, he would show them that there was at least +one man forward with the courage to defend himself. The second mate +took him by the throat (Rarx admits that) while he, Louis, was quietly +standing by the chicken-coop cutting off a plug of tobacco, being at +the time perfectly well behaved, and the Frenchman, remembering his +comrades, used his knife, ready in his hand. In the second place, the +name which the second mate called him was the last straw. English, +German, Scandinavian, and American sailors do not seem to care what +they are called by the mates; but any one of the violent Latin races +always resents this epithet with all the fury of which they are +possessed. It is inconceivable, anyhow, why Rarx should have stirred +up the row again.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_322">[Pg 322]</span> Chips ejected Louis from his shop. All right; he +is there to guard that part of the ship, and did right in heaving him +out of it; yet the second mate must needs rake it all up again two +hours afterward, when he didn’t even see the original disturbance. +Gradually I am beginning to lean toward the belief that Rarx and Louis +have had a grudge against each other for a long time, and mayhap that +little incident in the South Atlantic while the sails were being +shifted, during which Rarx nearly threw the Frenchman off one of the +mizzen-top-sail-yards, was not so much of an accident as it seemed.</p> + +<p>By far the gravest question now is, was the knife that did the deed +rusty? It was a sheath-knife such as all sailors carry in a little +leathern scabbard by the hip. It must have been fairly bright, though, +as there has been a great deal of use lately for sheath-knives in +cutting away old chafing gear, and therein lies Rarx’s salvation. His +sufferings are very great now; at long intervals he is somewhat easier, +but he groans almost continuously in what seems to be excruciating +agony, his breath comes in gasps, and perspiration oozes from his face +in large beads, as he wallows and squirms in his narrow, hot bunk, +almost crying aloud sometimes when the ship rolls.</p> + +<p>And what of Louis? He has been removed to the lazarette and fastened, +still handcuffed, to a thick stanchion. There he sits brooding +in the gloom, for no light penetrates the apartment save by the +booby-hatch that leads into it, secured with a chain heavy enough for +a maintop-sail-sheet. He has, however, plenty of air and good food, +including soft bread, which is no longer given to the men; but there is +not space enough for him to stand upright in, a kneeling posture being +the most elevated that he can assume. Still, there’s nothing else to do +with him, for he certainly couldn’t be allowed at large. Three times a +day<span class="pagenum" id="Page_323">[Pg 323]</span> the mate carries him his food, liberates him when he has finished +and marches him forward, walking about five feet behind him, his hand +gripping a pistol in his hip-pocket, ready for the least false move on +the part of the Frenchman or any one else. The latter’s face is a study +as he walks rapidly forward, his heavy, dark brows hanging sulkily over +flashing eyes which he never raises from the deck. Through the midst of +his shipmates he strides silently with bare feet, his immovable face +shrouded in deep scowls, looking neither to the right nor left. They +make way for him with averted heads as he passes through, followed +by his jailer, and the men close up again as after the passage of a +blood-hound in leash. Then in a moment back again he hurries along the +deck, mounts the poop-ladder, descends into the dusky recess, holds +out his hands, the irons are snapped on, with the chains between, and +he is left for another five or six hours to muse in solitude upon his +bloody deed. His face shows as yet no indication of relenting; but as +day after day drags on in all its awful loneliness even his nature, +however dauntless, must at last succumb to that most terrible of all +punishments, solitary confinement.</p> + +<p>As for the rest of the men, they have recovered somewhat and go about +their work much as usual, bar the chanties, and I had lately another +chance for a word with honest Paddy. “What do you think of this +affair?” I asked him. “Well, I can’t say I’m surprised,” he answered. +“How is that?” wishing to sound him. “Mr. Rarx has always seemed a +pretty decent fellow.” “Decent fellow!” he replied. “Say, look here, +I didn’t say much about him to you the other day, but I’ll tell you +what now, there’s not a single man in the fo’c’s’l what’ll say a good +word for him, ’ceptin’ that he’s a fine sailor-man. His temper’s hell,” +he went on, and I expected to hear of some more fine examples of +discipline, for we were on the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_324">[Pg 324]</span> fore-castle-head and not likely to be +seen, when “Come, come, Paddy, this ain’t the dog-watch,” broke sharply +in, and we perceived the stalwart shoulders of the bosun rise above the +ladder, which, of course, ended the conversation.</p> + +<p>My wife is rapidly recovering from her nervousness, having in this +respect exhibited almost miraculous recuperative powers. What a trying, +not to say a terrible, position for a woman to be placed in! What a +miserable termination to a voyage undertaken solely for pleasure! +Indeed, though, while we have enjoyed the sea as much, perhaps more, +than we ever did before, there have been so many adverse conditions +on board with which we have had to contend, that, after all, this is +a more or less appropriate termination to the passage. When Louis was +first put into the lazarette my wife didn’t like it at all, as our room +adjoins it, though separated by a stout partition or bulkhead; we have +allayed her fears, though, and we never hear so much as the clink of +the chain from the Frenchman, even at night. It is fortunate that our +relatives have no suspicion of our position.</p> + +<p>We are now permanently three hands short, for old Neilsen is still +so seedy that his most arduous tasks are making sennit and mats and +pointing and putting Turk’s-heads on ropes. At noon we found that a +strong southwesterly current had retarded us, and we are not as far +north by half a degree as we supposed. Precisely the same weather +conditions prevail, this great ocean being still in a state of absolute +rest. The wind is now east; an advantage, as it allows every sail to +draw. Latitude, 2° 49′ south; longitude, 112° 30′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">August 21</span></p> + +<p>Mr. Rarx is somewhat improved, we think, and this afternoon he is not +in so much pain. When I went in to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_325">[Pg 325]</span> see him yesterday I was shocked at +his appearance. His face was swollen and puffed and glistening with +perspiration; he twitched suddenly in jerks and was so exhausted that +a dozen consecutive words wore him completely out. The worst of all, +however, was his rambling speech, due to five-grain doses of opium; +these seem to me to be prodigious amounts to administer, and perhaps +account for the excessive cardiac palpitation from which he suffers. +During breakfast this morning he had a dreadful spasm of pain, and we +could hear him crying, “Oh, oh, oh, oh!” and it was miserable to see +this powerful man stricken down at one blow.</p> + +<p>Louis still conducts himself with the grim indifference of a Sioux +Indian; his chains have been double-riveted and shackled, and an idea +of the massiveness of the gear may be obtained when it is said that the +stanchion to which he is secured is five inches square and only four +feet high, that being the amount of head-room in the lazarette. The +skipper has to stand the second mate’s watches now, which is hard on +him, as he is suffering acutely from rheumatism. Lately, or since we +took the southeast Trades, he has been most astonishingly affable. We +don’t know what to think of him; his argumentativeness has disappeared +and he insists on conversing pleasantly at meals; in short, he has +assumed a gracious benignity as surprising as it is welcome, and it +proves that he knows quite well how to talk and act, and that his surly +manner is simply the result of a morose temper. I expect that he wants +to leave a good impression on our minds at the end of the voyage.</p> + +<p>Our southwesterly current gave rise to a most astounding lie from the +mate, to illustrate what he believes to be the erratic movements of the +currents in the North Pacific. The incident happened on a bark in the +San Francisco-Honolulu trade, of which he was mate at the time. This<span class="pagenum" id="Page_326">[Pg 326]</span> +vessel carried no freight, but did a large passenger trade, and always +carried cows along for fresh milk. “Well, sir, wot I’m a-tellin’ yer of +’appened onct on the houtward passage; one of our cows took sick and +died, and of course we ’ad to ’eave ’er over the side, which we did in +the northeast Trades. We reached ’Onolulu all right, and started back +ag’in for San Francisco, when one mornin’ in the Trades the cap’n he +says to me, ‘Mr. Goggins,’ says he, ‘wot’s that?’ ‘Wot’s wot?’ says I. +‘That there,’ says ’e, a-pointin’ over the weather-quarter. I looked, +sir, and strike me blind if there warn’t the body o’ that cow, and we +two ’undred mile to the north’ard o’ where we chucked ’er hoverboard. +She’d drifted there nearly dead ag’in the Trades in twenty-seven days.” +When I told this singular experience to the old man, he said, “The +principal thing that’s the matter with Goggins is that he’s a d—— old +fool.” This being the first occasion on which I ever knew a captain to +omit the handle to a mate’s name.</p> + +<p>However, Captain Scruggs himself told us a strange story later; but as +he is painfully accurate and never enlarges on facts or figures, it is +most likely true. He was bound from Seattle to Manila, master of the +“Judas Dowes,” and while rolling down through the southeast Trades he +fell in with a German ship which asked for the longitude. They had a +little talk together with the flags, and it turned out that she was +from Vancouver for Callao and that she was then one hundred and nine +days out. Nor was this the most remarkable part of the affair, for +she was thirteen hundred miles out of her course! Her chronometers +were out and she had been drifting about in the strong currents for +weeks, working by dead-reckoning. But if this is extraordinary, what +shall be said of the voyage of the ship “Ravenscrag,” which arrived +at Callao not many months ago, one hundred and eighty-four days from<span class="pagenum" id="Page_327">[Pg 327]</span> +New Whatcom! This place with the musical name is on Puget Sound, so +that the distance which the “Ravenscrag” had to traverse was not more +than six thousand miles in a straight line, yet so extremely difficult +is it to make the coast of South America on account of the Trades +that she was half a year at sea. Sailing ships have to practically +cross the Pacific before they can fetch a port on the Peruvian coast. +Another instance of the delay of this voyage is afforded by one of our +rear-admirals, retired, who told me that he was once almost one hundred +days from San Francisco to Callao in a training-ship, which shows +that the long passage of the “Ravenscrag” was not due to indolence +and bad navigation. The latter vessel’s voyage was infinitely more +extraordinary in comparison than the “T. F. Oakes’s” passage of two +hundred and fifty-nine days from Hong-Kong to New York.</p> + +<p>It is a pity that vessels have to stand so far to the westward here +when bound north in order to get the northeast Trades, but unless +they do they will fall into a great calm region that extends from the +Central American coast to the one hundred and twentieth meridian, and +which reaches as far north as the thirtieth parallel. This is also a +cyclonic zone, which, at certain seasons (particularly in September), +renders the voyage from Panama to San Francisco a very dangerous one +even for large steamers.</p> + +<p>The longest voyage that it is possible to make both in time and +distance is that from Great Britain or New York to the Japanese +and Chinese ports during the northeast monsoon, when vessels sail +completely around Australia and the whole length of the Asian coast +to 35° north rather than beat up through the Sunda Straits, the total +length of the voyage being twenty-one thousand miles. The following +recent passages taken from London “Fair-play” serve to show the +duration of the voyage in days:</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_328">[Pg 328]</span></p> + + +<table class="autotable"> +<tr> +<td class="tdl">“Ladakh,” New York to Hong-Kong</td> +<td class="tdl">181</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl">“Falls of Dee,” New York to Hong-Kong</td> +<td class="tdl">182</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl">“John R. Kelley,” New York to Hong-Kong</td> +<td class="tdl">182</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl">“Torrisdale,” New York to Hong-Kong</td> +<td class="tdl">190</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl">“Emily F. Whitney,” New York to Shanghai</td> +<td class="tdl">197</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl">“Musselcrag,” New York to Shanghai</td> +<td class="tdl">197</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl">“Ancona,” New York to Shanghai</td> +<td class="tdl">240</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl">“Eureka,” Philadelphia to Nagasaki</td> +<td class="tdl">186</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl">“George Curtis,” Philadelphia to Nagasaki</td> +<td class="tdl">197</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl">“Vimeira,” Philadelphia to Hiogo</td> +<td class="tdl">189</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdl">“Englehorn,” Philadelphia to Yokohama</td> +<td class="tdl">180</td> +</tr> +</table> + + +<p>The “Whitney,” “Curtis,” “Kelley,” and “Eureka” are American ships, +their average being one hundred and ninety days; the rest are English, +with an average of one hundred and ninety-four, the miserable passage +of the “Ancona” having spoiled the record of the Britishers. It will +be seen, however, that not one of the ships went out in less than six +months; compare this with the run of the American bark “St. James,” +from New York to Shanghai, of ninety-eight days in the southwest +monsoon, which was not a very wonderful passage.</p> + +<p>The weather is as usual, save that there is a great increase in the +humidity. Latitude, 1° south; longitude, 114° 40′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">August 22</span></p> + +<p>North latitude! At nine o’clock this morning we crossed the equator +in 115° 35′ west, and once more entered the Northern Hemisphere. Our +passage of one hundred and three days from New York to this position is +an average one, and we have yet twenty-seven days in which to reach San +Francisco without breaking what the skipper says is his record of never +having been at sea one hundred and thirty days.</p> + +<p>A remarkable circumstance in connection with this part<span class="pagenum" id="Page_329">[Pg 329]</span> of the world +is the low temperature of both sea and air; the former at noon was 77° +and the latter only 70°, or about the same as the sea in August at New +York. In the Indian and Atlantic Oceans the sea temperature at the +equator is 84° and the air 86°.</p> + +<p>We certainly made a fine run up from Cape Horn. Four weeks ago +to-morrow we were in 60° south, and have, therefore, sailed +thirty-six hundred miles of latitude and forty degrees of longitude +in twenty-seven days. But the wind has been very, very light for +twenty-four hours. We did only one hundred and one miles and just did +contrive to wriggle across the line. Perhaps this is only a light spell +in the Trades, as this wind at this season ought to carry us seven or +eight degrees farther north.</p> + +<p>Sufficient unto the day, etc. The memory of that miserable night last +Wednesday is already beginning to grow dim. Mr. Rarx is improving; +the terrific palpitation of his heart has ceased, and he has had much +natural sleep lately. He did a strange thing last night in the middle +watch: he got up out of his bed and sat for an hour in a chair; his +heart was much relieved, he said, and he certainly does look better.</p> + +<p>This being Sunday I had a long talk in the afternoon watch with MacFoy, +who confirmed what Paddy said of Rarx’s temper. Then happening to +mention Coleman, the bosun remarked, “He’s been pretty quiet since Mr. +Rarx laid him out.” “Laid him out when?” I asked. “Why, didn’t you know +he near killed him when we were towin’ to sea? No? Oh, dear! We were +haulin’ aft the foresheet and Coleman turned his head to say a word +to the man behind him, when the second mate come around the house and +kicked him pretty hard in the legs. ‘What are yer kickin’ me for, sir? +I didn’t do nothin’.’ ‘You lie,’ said Mr. Rarx. ‘What are you sayin’ to +that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_330">[Pg 330]</span> man? Givin’ me back talk, too.’ Well, sir, with that he jumped +on him when he was stoopin’ over, and I thought his ribs ’ud go afore +he got through with him. Now, look; a bosun’s supposed to be on the +mate’s side. But I say there’s no bit o’ use in a-smashin’ a man all up +that didn’t deserve it, as I’ve seen dozens o’ times in American ships. +I must say there’s some tough cases sails in Yankee ships, but whose +fault is that? It’s the fault o’ the cap’ins and mates themselves. +What man with a little bit o’ self-respec’s goin’ to allow himself to +be knocked around the decks when he can sail in other ships, even if +he is only a foremast hand? A dog won’t stand that, but he can run +away from the man what beats him; but the sailor can’t. But the worst +of the whole thing is that American mates don’t make any difference +atween a blackguard and a man what’s doin’ his best. Some men’s got +to be thumped, it’s the only way to handle ’em; but what’s the good +o’ hittin’ a man with a block like the second mate did to Karl and +then hazin’ him for the rest o’ the passage. It’s mighty little you +know what’s been goin’ on here up forrad; they’ve kep’ it quiet, for +I guess the old man told the mates not to let out afore you and the +lady. But there was a hot time under the forecastle-head some days off +the Horn. I was goin’ out in the ‘S. G. Alley’ a couple o’ year ago to +Japan. ‘Black Taylor’ was mate of her, the toughest man in the toughest +ship under the flag. We were makin’ sail off the Hook and there was a +man surgin’ up on a rope at a capstan; the rope was wet and wouldn’t +render easy, but paid out in short jerks, which, of course, the sailor +couldn’t help. Taylor spotted him, and sung out that if he did it again +he’d come over and fix him. In a minute or so the rope slipped an inch +again, and with that Taylor runs over to him and kicks him into the +water-ways, and was goin’ to lep on his stummick when the man all at +once<span class="pagenum" id="Page_331">[Pg 331]</span> jumped up, whipped out a knife and drew it up the mate’s vest. +His insides fell out on the deck and he died in a little while. Of +course the ship couldn’t go to sea without a mate, so we turned back +to New York. The sailor was jugged, and what d’ye think he got? Six +months! He pleaded self-defence and Taylor’s black record decided the +jury. I’ll bet this Frenchman of ours’ll get nothin’ at all if only one +man’ll stand by him and tell what he’s seen Mr. Rarx do. I’ve sailed in +a good many American ships, and in every one of them some one was cut +up afore we got in. I’m thinkin’ o’ the Snug Harbor or you’d never see +me in another one.” Latitude, 0° 7′ north; longitude, 115° 47′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">August 23</span></p> + +<p>We went along pretty slowly last night, for only the faintest of +breezes came whispering over the Pacific; and it was so still that we +could plainly hear the sighing of porpoises as they rolled languidly +through the water alongside, a brilliant flash of phosphoric light +showing where each disappeared. At daylight this morning, though, a +delightful breeze came singing out of the east-southeast, and by nine +o’clock we were making seven knots, doing twenty-nine miles in the +forenoon watch,—no mean speed for the equatorial ocean. It seems that +the light spell was only a lull in the Trades, for there are plenty of +indications of wind round about.</p> + +<p>At 4.30 yesterday, after pumping, I had yet another conversation with +the doughty Scot. “Have ye taken notice of the way the mate’s slacked +up on the men?” he asked; “that’s a bad sign, now. Here’s this man +cut; before ye’ll remember how he used to shout and charge around the +decks. What do ye hear from him now? Nothin’ at all. I haven’t heard +him raise his voice to one<span class="pagenum" id="Page_332">[Pg 332]</span> o’ the men since Wednesday night. Why? +’Cause he’s scared. He’s in a funk; and I have the task o’ keepin’ the +ship in order forrad. One o’ them, Tim, was goin’ to get ugly this +forenoon; but I turned on him sharp and says, ‘See here, now, drop +that; you’ve laid one man out, haven’t you? You have; but I’m d—— if +you’re goin’ to lay me out,’ says I, and that settled it for the time. +Who’ve I got to depend on if they do break out? The mate’s no good, +and t’other bosun’s only a child. When Mr. Rarx gets up again you’ll +see some fireworks. Did ye ever hear anythin’ about Cap’n Slocum in +the ‘D. G. Tillie’? He’s another hard nut. I was comin’ around in her +once from Baltimore, bound to ’Frisco with a load o’ coal. One o’ the +men forgot to say ‘sir’ to the second mate one day in a hard squall; +so Slocum clapped the irons on him, and then near beat the life out of +him with a fid. This little bit o’ fun, though, I heard cost him near +two thousand dollars. I’ll tell ye the ships you’d ought to sail in if +ye make another voyage,—one of the Loch Line; they’re grand ships, and +run like men-o’-war; I’ve been in them, and they’re the best that sails +the seas.”</p> + +<p>They are, doubtless, the best run sailing ships in the world, and +were built not alone to carry agricultural implements and wool in the +London-Melbourne trade, but to take out passengers as well. There are +fifteen of them, and all named after Scottish lochs, and they vary in +size from twelve hundred to two thousand tons. If all ships were as +fast as the “Loch Torridon,” tramp steamers would be at a discount. +This vessel goes wherever she can find a charter, and has made a number +of wonderful records. She holds the best record for a deep-loaded ship +from Newcastle, Australia, to San Francisco,—forty-six days. In 1891 +she made the passage from Sydney to London, wool-laden, in eighty days, +beating a fleet of seventy-eight<span class="pagenum" id="Page_333">[Pg 333]</span> vessels, similarly loaded and bound +to the United Kingdom. It was on this voyage that Captain Pattman, +who has commanded the ship for sixteen years, made a record that is +simply marvellous, by sailing from the Diego Ramirez to the Lizard in +forty-one days! In 1892 the “Loch Torridon,” in ballast, went out to +Melbourne from London in sixty-nine days, and the consecutive runs +for nine days were, in knots, 302, 290, 288, 272, 285, 282, 270, 327, +and 341; and from Saturday noon to Saturday noon the ship made 2119 +knots, an average of 303 knots per day, or about thirteen miles per +hour. Another fast passage of this gallant ship was from Newcastle, +Australia, to Valparaiso in thirty days. It is easy to imagine the +intense pride that a ship-master must feel in such a vessel. Her +picture appears on the opposite page. It is a pity that her royals are +clewed up.</p> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp90" id="i_332a" style="max-width: 128.6875em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/i_332a.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption class="caption"><p>The four-masted British ship “Loch Torridon”</p></figcaption> +</figure> + +<p>Last evening Louis’s coat and a change of clothes were brought aft +by Charlie, one of the jolly, good-tempered fellows. “Lemme see them +duds,” growled the mate, standing by the wheel-house, who then went +carefully through the pockets for concealed weapons, but found only a +lump of tobacco, which some one had slipped into the pocket, as Louis +is a great masticator of the weed. The mate subsequently transferred +the tobacco to his own pocket, whereupon Charlie actually expostulated +with him, at which Mr. Goggins said never a word! The second mate is +now doing quite well, and ate his first solid food to-day, a bit of dry +toast, but his rations still consist mostly of arrow-root gruel. The +captain told us to-day that last Friday he didn’t think that Mr. Rarx +would live through that day, but a robust constitution has apparently +pulled him past the crisis. The more we ponder on the stabbing affair +the more remarkable it seems that the second mate should have started +the row. If the truth were known, both<span class="pagenum" id="Page_334">[Pg 334]</span> Rarx and Louis were perhaps +getting a little rusty from disuse and tried to brighten matters up +a little; but Rarx’ll never take another Dago by the throat again +(at sea Frenchmen, Spaniards, and Italians are Dagos; Scandinavians, +Hollanders, and Germans are Dutchmen). Louis will have a very strong +case against the second mate if he can get Karl and some of the +others to testify as to their treatment at the hands of Mr. Rarx; and +self-defence is an excellent plea when a man takes another by the +throat, especially if the said man has been in the habit of utilizing +belaying-pins for other purposes than those for which they were +intended. Latitude, 1° 45′ north; longitude, 117° 15′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">August 24</span></p> + +<p>Two hundred and two miles! How’s that for one day’s run in the +southeast Trades two hundred and fifty miles north of the equator? +Indeed, this is the best that we have done for a fortnight, and +it has put all hands in a happy mood. A powerful current setting +west-northwest, two and one-half knots an hour, has been responsible +for about sixty miles of the distance, but the wind is strong at +south-southeast and should give us another good run to-morrow. Except +the Gulf Stream, I do not know of a current in the open sea as strong +as this one, which, if in a harbor, would at times, half bury a small +can-buoy. The heat, though, is very severe now, the humidity and +oppressiveness being extreme.</p> + +<p>The second mate was carried out of his room this forenoon and laid +in a reclining chair on the main-deck. His respiration is improving, +though it is still labored, and he says that he really feels but little +better. The probability of his being able to resume his duties before +we reach port is very remote, which is fortunate for the men, for if +Mr.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_335">[Pg 335]</span> Rarx should sufficiently recover to stand his watches, there would +be a terrific thumping of sailors.</p> + +<p>The mate went below to put a fresh pair of irons on Louis, and in doing +so handled him very roughly (a courageous performance), so that the +Frenchman sobbed two or three times. “Ha,” quoth Goggins, “blubberin’, +eh? That’s just like you Dagos. You’re nothin’ but a lot of old women +with no more sand than a—a—a—jelly-fish, you ain’t.” People in +glass houses occurred to me then, and I thought how Louis could, any +day, pick up this miserable creature when he went down with his food, +and shake the life out of him with just one of those mighty arms of +his. The Frenchman is unlucky in having such wrists, for there is not +a pair of irons in the ship nearly large enough, and each wrist is +encircled by a ringlet of raw skin where the handcuffs have gripped and +chafed it as though it had been seared with a hot bracelet. I cannot +help feeling sorry for him, in spite of his deed; for it is improbable +that a man whose general character is so good and whose face is so +frank and honest is a villain at heart. Like the rest of his nation, +he is very quick-tempered, and upon the second mate’s catching him by +the throat his hand instantly flew to his weapon, the common sailor’s +sheath-knife. On the other hand, both Tim and Coleman look like typical +hard cases, with restless eyes and evil, discontented, sinister faces. +Why is it that such men are seldom maltreated at sea? It is only such +inoffensive creatures as Karl and Brün who are kicked about a ship’s +deck like curs in an alley-way. Such men as I have mentioned first are +thoroughly wide-awake, too, and know just how far to go in irritating +captains and mates without laying themselves open to punishment; and +when mates cannot detect them, they (the mates) “take it out” on others.</p> + +<p>The most intelligent man forward is a New Yorker, Dick<span class="pagenum" id="Page_336">[Pg 336]</span> Broadhead, +and, as he has been very willing to talk, we have had some interesting +conversations. He is going out to ship in one of the Pacific mail +steamers as quartermaster, which accounts for so respectable a young +man’s signing in an American vessel. What a splendid lot of young, +native Americans we would have in our merchant marine if boys at sea +in our deep-water ships were treated as they are in the vessels of +other nations! The real American sailor, as he has proved in our naval +achievements, has no superior, and if even the mildest inducements were +offered to young men of decent antecedents to sail in our ships, we +would soon have a merchant service that would be the envy of the rest +of the world. Look at the training-ship “St. Mary’s,” which is supposed +to supply young men to officer our steamers and sailing ships. I have +yet to meet with a single graduate of this excellent institution on +a sailing vessel, for they absolutely refuse to sign in them even as +second mate, saying that until blood and belaying-pins cease to fly +in our long-voyage ships, they would leave them severely alone. The +existing condition of things actually prevents our boys and young men +from joining the merchant service. Why have we not a Plimsoll to strip +our ships of the unprincipled wretches who command and officer them? +Although not a sailor, this excellent man spent most of his life and +ten thousand pounds in ameliorating the condition of English seamen. +If our sailors were treated as they are in the foreign services, we +should have gentlemen’s sons as captains and mates, as they have in +Great Britain and Germany, and not the miserable examples of humanity +that are to be found on the quarter-decks of the majority of our +deep-water-men. The second mate of a ship once said to me, speaking +of the captain of one of our crack San Francisco wind-jammers, “What! +Cap’n B——? Why, he don’t know who his father and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_337">[Pg 337]</span> mother were.” If +this is the captain, what can you expect?</p> + +<p>But I have drifted away from Broadhead. This is the second ship under +the stars and stripes that he ever served in, having been shanghaied +on board the “Virago” once two or three years before in a Chinese +port. It was this ship’s maiden voyage, and she came home around South +America from Hong-Kong, instead of around Africa. Concerning Captain +Jones, Broadhead remarked, “I’ve seen dummies in command of ships, but +he beats the deck. The first bad squall we had off the Horn, I was +steering, and he was so scared he just held on to the rail and yelled, +and I heard the mate say to him, ‘Why don’t you get the t’-ga’nt-s’ls +off her?’ She went down to the sheer-poles in that squall, and they do +say he hasn’t had anything above the topsails on her since. I’ll give +you a tip: the ‘Virago’s’ got three masts too many for Cap’n Jones.” +Latitude, 4° 24′ north; longitude, 119° 20′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">August 25</span></p> + +<p>So joyous a breeze has wafted us along for twenty-four hours that +at noon to-day we were two hundred and two miles from where we were +at the same time yesterday. We have no current now, and our run was +due solely to good, honest winds from south-southeast. At about noon +to-day, though, the breeze shifted to south-southwest, and now (4 +<span class="allsmcap">P.M.</span>) it is at southwest and not strong. It is probable that +we have lost the Trades, after holding them for thirty-five degrees +of latitude,—a remarkable piece of luck. It was grand sailing then; +the very finest that we ever had. But hence to 15° north will no +doubt be a trying week. It was a matter of some surprise to us when +we first learned that the light southwesterly wind that blows between +the Trades in the Atlantic and Pacific is called a monsoon. It<span class="pagenum" id="Page_338">[Pg 338]</span> is +generally supposed that the term monsoon, which is from the Arabian +<i>mawsun</i>, signifying season, is applied to certain winds on the +southeast coast of Asia only.</p> + +<p>Gracious, how hot it is here now! What a difference in a few hours! +At noon, with the sky heavily overcast and on the coolest part of +the deck, the thermometer stood at 84°. In equatorial regions it +is only when far removed from salt-water that the mercury rises to +such altitudes as 130°; this fearful temperature is experienced in +many localities, such as Northern India, Mojave Desert, in Southern +California, and in parts of Australia. In such places as Para, +Singapore, and Madras, though close to the equator, the temperature +seldom rises more than two or three degrees above 90°. Anything higher +than 80° in such places, as well as at sea, would be considered almost +unbearable by most people.</p> + +<p>While my wife and I were reading on the deck-house this morning we +observed the wee cook in transports of delight, the cause of which +became apparent when he held up a fine bonito. We went down to look at +it, and then perceived two men on the jib-boom end fishing for them, so +we climbed up on the top-gallant forecastle-head to watch the sport. +It was delightful up there, cool and breezy from the gush that whirled +out of the curve of the foresail. We braced ourselves against the +knight-heads and, looking down over the lofty, flaring bows, we could +see dozens of bonitos darting swiftly about the cut-water as we swept +grandly on through the blue, transparent sea. Far out on the tapering +end of the spar were Charley and Olsen; the former with the line in his +hand, the hook being concealed by that singular and universal deep-sea +bait, a bit of white cotton cloth. Charley kept the hook just touching +the surface, except when he jerked it sharply upward, in imitation +of the flight of the flying-fish, which form the principal<span class="pagenum" id="Page_339">[Pg 339]</span> food of +the voracious bonito. It would be all but impossible to conceive a +more beautiful scene than that which fascinated us for half an hour. +The fish themselves were of the most exquisite colors, some brilliant +blue, some magenta, others of a rich purple; and as they flashed +through the water with incredible speed, twisting and twirling about +in pursuit of their prey, with now and then a gleam of silvery white +from their under parts, they looked not unlike segments of a vivid +rainbow. Presently one would shoot clear out of the water for the bait, +straight and swift as a dart, and seize it in his toothless but greedy +jaws. A great churning and splashing would follow, and then Charlie, +almost hysterical with excitement, would haul up the lithe, handsome +creature, quivering and vibrating as though galvanized. No sooner would +he be hooked than perhaps a hundred flying-fish would break through +the surface and sail gleaming away for a few rods, only to fall into +the rapacious mouths of their enemies. The spectacle was one long to +be cherished: the whizzing flight of the glittering little fish, the +lustrous-hued bonitos, the tranquil surface of the ocean, broken here +and there with foaming ripples, and the lofty tiers of canvas rearing +themselves higher and higher toward the clouds.</p> + +<p>Captain Scruggs continues his quiet, almost agreeable manner, answers +pleasantly, and has little to say at meals. It is aggravating to think +that the skipper knew quite well how he ought to have behaved during +the voyage, and that he simply didn’t care “whether school kept or +not.” Now and then the silence is broken during dinner by a shattering +crash of the old man’s ponderous foot upon the oil-cloth floor, while +he simultaneously yells, “Get out o’ here, you homely thing!” This +is an exhortation to the gaunt, pop-eyed cat, which sometimes slinks +into the cabin at meals. It seems impossible to fatten this singular<span class="pagenum" id="Page_340">[Pg 340]</span> +animal, and it skulks and stalks about the decks as lank and ribbed as +a Calcutta jackal, with its huge saffron eyes fixed motionlessly upon +you in so startling a fashion that it looks like an incarnation of one +of Cruikshank’s drawings. Its notions of sport are equally strange; +Tommie, the sleek Maltese, has been trying to teach it how to play, +but when Tom rushes sportively at it, the other executes a series of +prodigious, vertical leaps, with its legs flat out at right angles, and +in another moment vanishes with an eldrich cry.</p> + +<p>Mr. Rarx is about the same; two of the men supported him to-day while +he tried to hobble about the deck; but he cannot for an instant even +stand alone. Latitude, 6° 56′ north; longitude, 121° 15′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">August 26</span></p> + +<p>We are now certain that we have lost the Trades. The wind has been +steady at southwest for twenty-four hours, and, though not a strong +breeze, we made more than two degrees of latitude, which is not bad +going for this region, and three days of it would take us into the +northeast winds. It is intensely hot and moist, and heavy showers pelt +us every half-hour; but it is a fine chance for cleaning ship, and all +hands are at work scrubbing off the old paint from the bulwarks and +deck-houses preparatory to the new coat.</p> + +<p>How I wish we could get a photograph in colors of that villain, Tim +Powers! I never supposed that one of the human species could so nearly +in appearance approach the simian race. His head and jaws are covered +with a thick growth of bright-red hair, which continues down his +throat till it meets a shaggy breast. The body, powerfully made, is +curved forward like an ape’s, and long, thick arms, hair-covered to +the knuckles, swing loosely well below the middle; and he waddles in +his gait like a monkey endeavoring<span class="pagenum" id="Page_341">[Pg 341]</span> to walk upright. The best possible +description of this animal is to say that he is ever so much more like +a chimpanzee than a chimpanzee is. Besides all this, he is so dirty +that the rest of the men follow him with their eyes as he moves about +the deck.</p> + +<p>Those who are not especially interested in the well-being of our +sailors may find the following dissertation somewhat tiresome; but +the facts about to be set forth ought to be known to the public, as +they certainly are not, so that I will not begin these remarks with an +apology for their length.</p> + +<p>In every port of any size in the United States there are a number of +men whose business it is to maintain boarding-houses for sailors,—that +is, they are known to the outside world as boarding-house-keepers, +but in reality they form one of the most extensive aggregations of +criminals, thieves, and persecutors to be met with in any country of +the world that boasts a high civilization. Their technical name is +crimps. The Encyclopædic Dictionary defines a crimp as “one who keeps +a low lodging-house, into which sailors and others are decoyed and +then robbed”; but it would be impossible to present properly, in so +small a space, the different phases and extensions of a system which +for generations has eluded and defied investigation and has baffled +the attempts of well-meaning but incapable legislators. New York is +the hot-bed of crimps, for there are more than fifty boarding-houses +in the city near the water-front. Take the case of a vessel just in +from a long voyage. No sooner does the anchor touch bottom than her +decks are suddenly and mysteriously filled with strange men, who pay no +attention to the captain or mates, but go at once into the forecastle +among the sailors. They are the runners for the crimps,—men whose +business it is to supply the sailors with grog which they have brought +on board for<span class="pagenum" id="Page_342">[Pg 342]</span> the purpose, and then decoy and persuade them to their +respective establishments. Every sailor at the end of a voyage has but +half of his wages coming to him (more of this by and by), say about +forty dollars. The crimp at once takes a week’s board in advance and +then, having drenched the unfortunate with the vilest of rum, it is a +matter of but two or three days until the crimp has wheedled him out of +the rest of his hard-earned gains, and then he gets in his finest work +by opening an account with the sailor for lodging, meals, drinks, etc. +He then at once becomes the slave of the crimp and must do his bidding; +not only can the latter prevent him from securing employment (in this +free country!), but can actually prevent a ship-master from getting +a crew, unless he signifies his willingness to deal with him; and as +I have said, so powerful (politically) is the crimping organization +in New York that it successfully defies all effort at checking it and +controls absolutely the shipping of sailors in New York. When a captain +wishes to engage a crew, not finding one at the shipping commissioners, +where they are supposed to be, he is compelled to apply to a crimp, +and if sailors are scarce at the time, he will charge the captain so +much per head! If the sailors are plentiful, though, he will not charge +the captain anything for supplying him with a crew; in fact, he will +go to the extremity of paying the latter a bonus for the privilege of +shipping his men, in order to prevent some other crimp from securing +his business, taking the precaution of charging the sailors a fee +sufficiently large to make up the deficiency. This fee is known among +sailors as “blood-money,” and it varies from one to twenty dollars +<i>per capita</i>; in our own case, the amount that each foremast hand +had to pay for being allowed to sail in this ship was five dollars; and +though their wages are so small (about eighteen dollars a month) it +would be useless for them to object to the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_343">[Pg 343]</span> blood-money; alternative, +starvation in the streets. This practice of paying ship owners and +masters for the privilege of supplying them with sailors has grown so +common that it is regarded by many owners and captains as a legitimate +source of income; so much so, that the majority refuse to sign other +than a crimp’s crew. The shipping commissioner, a federal officer, is +supposed to look after the gathering together of a ship’s company; the +men, it is true, sign the articles in his presence, but that is the sum +total of his connection with the shipment of sailors. Why doesn’t the +commissioner stop the crimping? He is well aware, of course, that it +goes on; but he does not seek to prevent it because he is instructed +not to interfere with the accredited “<i>agents</i>” of the owners, and +it must not be forgotten that under the fee system in vogue at present +the commissioners are, to a great extent, dependent upon the good-will +of the owners for their income. Any attempt of the commissioner to +interfere with the “agents” of the latter would evoke a strong protest +from them, and would, perhaps, end in the suppression of the office of +commissioner; therefore the majority of the owners insist that their +“agents” shall be respected.</p> + +<p>In many instances the commissioners have been utterly unfit for the +office they have held, for they are supposed to look after the welfare +of seamen, besides their shipment. It is even said that some have been +appointed from the forces of the crimps themselves. Others have been +common ward politicians (those who know New York will appreciate this), +and even a metal-worker has in the past held the office at New York; +while the most influential candidate for the position now at one of our +greatest ports is a sign-painter! It will be appreciated at once how +much men of this sort know of the grievances of sailors whom they are +supposed to protect.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_344">[Pg 344]</span></p> + +<p>The allotment system which obtains now when sailors are about to go to +sea is a most iniquitous arrangement. The law says that “a sailor may +stipulate in his shipping agreement for the allotment of any portion +of his wages which he may earn to his wife, mother, or other relative, +or to an original creditor in liquidation of any just debt for board +or clothing which he may have contracted prior to an engagement.” +This law was evidently framed to the advantage of the sailor, but in +its ambiguity lies its detriment to seamen. Of course, the “original +creditor” is the crimp (which was obviously not what the law intended), +who has turned the words “may stipulate” into “must stipulate.” When +a ship-master makes known to a crimp that he wants a crew, the crimp +rounds up the required number of men, marches them to the shipping +commissioner’s, where they sign the articles and are paid usually two +months’ advance wages (which is not lawful until it is turned into an +“allotment”). This money, forty dollars in round numbers, is given to +the crimp (“the original creditor”), who then extracts from the sum an +amount three or four times in excess of what the man is really indebted +to him, arranges for the blood-money, and hands the rest (if any money +remains) to the victim. Frequently all of his advance is necessary to +liquidate this “just debt,” and the man goes to sea without a cent. +On the voyage he gets in debt to the ship for the slop-chest account, +clothing, oil-skins, boots, tobacco, etc., and at the end of the +voyage, if it lasts four months, generally not more than a month’s +wages are due him. This is secured by the crimp at the destination, and +the old story of robbery and persecution is repeated. No foreign nation +that I know of, at least none of the highest rank, allows crimping. The +government has charge of the procuring of crews, and any infringement +or interference by an outsider is a criminal offence, and, more<span class="pagenum" id="Page_345">[Pg 345]</span> than +that, it is always punished as such. The United States government has +never attempted to stamp out the crimps, and they, in turn, have never +experienced any difficulty in prosecuting their lawless and miserable +business.</p> + +<p>Every time that a sailor signs articles any one or all of the following +laws are violated, which the commissioner placidly disregards, and of +which other government officials seem to be in complete ignorance:</p> + +<p>1st. The payment of advance prohibited under penalty, fine, and +imprisonment. 23 St. at L., page 55, Section 10, Dingley act, June 26, +1884; pages 66, 67 of U. S. Navigation Laws, also subdivision, Section +4522, U. S. R. S.</p> + +<p>2d. Misuse of allotment notes. See 24 St. at L., page 80, Section 3, +act June 19, 1886, and page 67, U. S. Navigation Laws.</p> + +<p>3d. Payment of blood-money strictly forbidden. Section 4609, U. S. R. S.</p> + +<p>4th. Withholding wages four or five days to bring seamen into the power +of crimps. Section 4529, U. S. R. S.</p> + +<p>5th. Withholding seamen’s baggage to prevent them from seeking +employment on their own account. Prohibition and penalty, Section 4536, +U. S. R. S., as amended February 18, 1895; page 68, U. S. Navigation +Laws.</p> + +<p>6th. Soliciting lodgers (employment of runners) on inward-bound ships. +Section 4607, U. S. R. S; page 71, U. S. Navigation Laws.</p> + +<p>All these violations tend directly to the demoralization and +degradation of sailors, and ought to be immediately abolished.</p> + +<p>Why our shipping laws should be so frequently broken, and with +the utmost impunity, is, I think, partly due to their ambiguous +construction, for many of them were prepared by either ship-owners or +crimps with an abundance<span class="pagenum" id="Page_346">[Pg 346]</span> of political influence, and also partly to +our lax method of carrying out the laws that we have framed; and they +are disregarded because it would not be to the advantage of any one +save the sailor, for whom they were supposed to have been enacted, +to enforce them. The grievances of seamen are not popular subjects +with the authorities, because of the peculiar obstacles generally met +with in efforts to prove them; while the amount of damages awarded to +sailors, except in unusual cases, do not offer sufficient inducements +to the sort of maritime lawyers who would be likely to bring the cases +to a successful issue.</p> + +<p>As that able writer on the subject and champion of sailors, Mr. James +H. Williams, says, “The complaining seaman has usually arrayed against +him the combined powers of the wealthy ship-owners; the cunning, +unscrupulous, and designing crimp; the sagacity and ability of the most +experienced lawyers; and sometimes the traditional prejudice of the +judicial mind is often turned against him. With this combination to +overcome on the merits of his case alone, the allegations of the sailor +must be well sustained indeed to enable him to win.” As for the cases +of sailors suing for damages for maltreatment at sea, the difficulties +encountered by them when seeking justice lie in the facilities afforded +the offender—that is, the master or mate—to escape; the obstacles +that the owners put in the way of his apprehension; and the disposal of +the witnesses—“shanghaiing”—either by <i>bribery or intimidation by +the crimps</i>.</p> + +<p>Mr. Williams has accurately and truthfully summed up the seaman’s +condition in the United States as follows: “The sailor is degraded +to be more effectually robbed; he is cheated for want of official +protection; he is not protected because of his own utter helplessness, +and because we have no recognized shipping system such as exists in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_347">[Pg 347]</span> +Great Britain, for instance. In this country the sailor is often +despised because of his nationality; in European countries he is +usually honored for the same reason. When this nation rises to a +realizing sense of its own responsibility and manifest duty to the +sailor, and provides proper laws for his protection and adequate means +for their enforcement, both our merchant marine and navy will become +Americanized, seamanship will become an honorable calling, and American +boys will go to sea.”</p> + +<p>Over against this wretched treatment allowed to exist by the government +of the United States, for its commissioners make no attempt to prevent +it, stands forth the protection accorded the sailors of Great Britain +and Germany. Seamen are well taken care of in the latter country; but +in Great Britain there exists a system of sailor protection ashore, +so perfect as to leave little or nothing to be desired; and the +perfection of its detail has led me to show the workings of this scheme +in the next few pages, a scheme that is <i>facile princeps</i>, and +that ought to be a model for the rest of the world. The shipment of +seamen in Great Britain is conducted under the superintendence of the +Board of Trade; this is a separate department of the government, and +upon it devolves the supervision and control of the entire merchant +marine,—<i>i.e.</i>, commerce and navigation. The president of the +Board of Trade is a cabinet minister, and of course occupies a seat +in Parliament; and the duties of the Board are defined and guided by +acts of Parliament. Among other specific functions, the Board of Trade +must provide for the shipment, care, and protection of seamen, and +must frame and <i>enforce</i> (that’s the great point) proper laws +for the suppression of crimping and similar abominations. Inasmuch +as the Board was organized solely with reference to the interests of +sailors and commerce, its officers have been, in nearly every case, +judiciously chosen<span class="pagenum" id="Page_348">[Pg 348]</span> for their peculiar fitness and natural aptitude +for the work rather than for any <i>political views</i> they may have +held, or because of any <i>influence</i> exercised in favor of their +appointment. As a result of this common-sense arrangement a most +efficient and reliable body of officials has been secured, and for +this reason the Board of Trade, from being considered at first a very +troublesome innovation by maritime people, has succeeded in forming +relations so close as to be almost indispensable with ship-owners and +merchants throughout Great Britain; and what is even more remarkable, +and certainly just as important, it has secured the confidence, +improved the character, and protected the rights, interests, and +persons of seamen to an extent which no other institution in any +country has ever attained.</p> + +<p>In all ports of Great Britain subdivisions of the Board of Trade, +called Local Marine Boards, are established, each having authority over +local maritime affairs. Seamen are entitled to direct representation on +these local Boards, which are now maintained by the home government at +various foreign seaports between Hamburg and Brest.</p> + +<p>In Great Britain the shipping and discharging of seamen is conducted +and superintended by government officers, <i>and no person other than +duly appointed officials of the Board of Trade are permitted to enter +the shipping office under any pretext whatever while business is being +transacted between master and crew under severe penalty</i>. Crimps +and all manner of “beach pirates” are particularly objectionable, and +if found on the premises occupied by an official shipping bureau, +are incarcerated without the slightest ceremony. Every shipment of +seamen must take place at a government office except in extraordinary +cases provided for in the law. When crews are wanted, notices to that +effect are posted at the shipping office, on the vessels requiring +them, and in other places where sailors will be<span class="pagenum" id="Page_349">[Pg 349]</span> likely to see them. +Men desiring employment then proceed to the shipping office, present +their <i>discharges</i> to the official, who in turn hands them to the +captain. In this way crews are selected, and it will be perceived what +an excellent body of men a captain can thus gather together. A seaman +without his discharges generally finds great difficulty in obtaining a +berth in England unless he can offer proof as to his previous service +and character. These discharges are usually enclosed in a sort of +wallet furnished by the government for a small sum, and are always +accepted as evidence of the men’s rating, ability, and conduct. They +are retained by the master until the end of the voyage, when they are +returned to the owners with a new one added.</p> + +<p>Aside from the mere formal engagement and official protection from +“water-front parasites,” the Board of Trade is of immense importance +and value to British sailors in a variety of ways altogether too +numerous for enumeration here. Suffice it to say, then, that the +many shining features of this splendid institution have proved of +incalculable benefit to English sailors and their families, while the +practical results obtained by means of its beneficent influence have +contributed in no small degree to the present maritime greatness and +power of the British nation.</p> + +<p>Compare this method with the American fashion of throwing a dozen +or more poor, wretched, half-starved, drunken creatures on board a +ship, who have been robbed of their small pittance, gained often when +looking into death’s jaws without so much as a flinch; and frequently +stripped of every garment save the underclothes which alone cover +them, the hapless victims of the laxity and the passive indifference +of the United States government, commence the voyage of four or six +months in a ship commanded in many, many instances by men little short +of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_350">[Pg 350]</span> devils, and officered by men worse than beasts, conscious that +for themselves it is merely a case of “out of the pan into the fire.” +Latitude, 8° 53′ north; longitude, 122° west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">August 27</span></p> + +<p>Last night was one of terrific heat. Imagine a temperature of 87° at +one in the morning, with an atmosphere so oppressive with humidity +that instead of sustaining a weight of fifteen pounds per square inch +the body seems to be supporting at least thirty. It was hotter than +any night that I ever remember afloat or ashore. There was a peculiar, +smothering quality in the atmosphere, which was so heavy and moist +that it seemed as though you ought to be able to seize a handful and +squeeze the water out of it. The very essence of humidity seemed to be +instilled into the air, and my wife, who readily withstood the heat in +the Bay of Bengal at the close of the wet season, nearly fainted in +the middle watch. It must not be supposed that because the air is pure +that people do not suffer in hot weather at sea; that is an idea held +only by those who have never crossed the equator. If the hygrometer +would drop even to eighty-five or ninety the temperature could be +conveniently borne; but this almost continual saturation is exceedingly +trying. Think of the sufferings of passengers in the Red Sea, when +steamers often have to alter their course and proceed against the wind +to prevent people from dying of heat apoplexy!</p> + +<p>The captain has once more donned his white drill suits, the jackets of +which button closely up under the throat, like soldiers’ tunics in the +tropics. By this arrangement it is not necessary to wear an ordinary +shirt underneath; and at first glance the skipper looks to be most +suitably and airily attired, and you envy him the possession of his +gossamer tunics, until at meals, when there is an expansion of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_351">[Pg 351]</span> his +corporeal sphericity which opens the spaces between the tunic buttons. +And then, oh, horrors! the sight is blasted by the lurid glare of a +red flannel undershirt! Red flannel on the equator! It is enough to +throttle you, and the temperature instantly rises several degrees. No +man ought to be allowed to so afflict his fellow-creatures.</p> + +<p>Last night when I went on deck at 9.30 the skipper was on the lee +side, looking at the heavens. On seeing me he said, “Well, there’s our +old friend, the pole star; we haven’t seen him for many a day.” Now, +I ought to have known better than to attempt any joke, but it seemed +likely that he would surely know this ancient pleasantry of mariners, +so I answered,—</p> + +<p>“Yes; as the saying is, the pole star is the first land you make coming +up from Cape Horn.”</p> + +<p>This threw him into a grave meditation, at the end of which he +ominously observed, “I don’t see what you mean.” I had by this time +forgotten all about the star, and had to ask him in turn what <i>he</i> +meant.</p> + +<p>“Why, how do you mean that the pole star is the first land you make?” +he demanded, bristling; “you often see Juan Fernandez.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, well,” I answered, desiring propitiation, “sailors used to say +that in the old days, meaning that it reminded them that they were once +more in northern latitudes.”</p> + +<p>“Well, <i>I</i> never heard it,” he returned; “and, anyhow, we don’t +know whether hit’s land <i>or</i> water.” Here I fled, unable to +withstand the strain any longer.</p> + +<p>At dinner to-day he unexpectedly relapsed into his usual morose, +contrary humor, and came strutting and stamping into the dining-room, +glaring at every object, till his eye lit on a plate of rather stale +hard bread on the table; then he grabbed some, fiercely bit an enormous +piece out of it, threw the rest back into the platter, dropped into his +seat with a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_352">[Pg 352]</span> crash that shook the tumblers, and shouted at the quaking +steward, “Ain’t I told yer not to put nothin’ on the table but what’s +fit for a white man to eat?” Deep silence followed as he dashed the +soup around in the tureen with the ladle and fell upon his dinner; and +my wife, without thinking, observed, “Well, this is the hottest we have +had yet.” “No,” said Captain Scruggs, “it ain’t, hit’s nice and cool.” +Angry at this flat contradiction, I told him that the thermometer, +unlike many people, always told the truth, and that it was 88° on +deck. “In the sun,” he replied, which he knew wasn’t so; while that +devilish Goggins smiled blandly at us, as if to say, “You can’t catch +<i>him</i>”; but I stood by for developments. Presently the old man +began to shift about in his seat; then he made the curious remark that +it was too warm for rain; in ten minutes more the perspiration began to +stream from his face, and in another five minutes he got up and left +the cabin, almost prostrated with the heat on this cool and pleasant +day; though as he departed he attributed it to “them beans bein’ too +heavy eatin’.” The mate followed him, with a face like a worn-out wet +carriage sponge.</p> + +<p>We have crossed the sun and he is at last south of us and casts shadows +in the opposite direction from yesterday. We haven’t had the racks on +the table for two days, which means a phenomenally smooth sea; the +ocean often appears quiet enough to the eye, but there is nearly always +a swell present that would play havoc with glasses and bottles. This is +the first time that we haven’t used the fiddles since leaving New York. +Latitude, 10° 44′ north; longitude, 122° 35′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">August 28</span></p> + +<p>Another very hot day and night, but not comparable with yesterday, +when a draught of air out of the sails was more<span class="pagenum" id="Page_353">[Pg 353]</span> like a blast from +Tophet than a breath from this great ocean. It was possible to get +considerable sleep last night, and on the whole we did very well; +for even if we made only seventy-five miles, it was in the right +direction. During the whole of the first watch last night there wasn’t +even a suspicion of wind and the silence that reigned was wonderfully +impressive, so that we were deeply awed by the solemnity of the scene. +All about the zenith was a large area of perfectly clear sky thickly +dusted with stars that shone with a calm splendor not to be seen except +near the equator.</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“By night those soft, lasceevious stars</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Leer from those velvet skies,”</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>saith Kipling.</p> + +<p>About 45° from the zenith a mist commenced, thickening gradually +into clouds dense and black, their lofty cones and dark abysses +brought forth with startling clearness by great ceaseless surges of +heat-lightning that enveloped the horizon like undulating, violet +flames. On board no sound broke the stillness, which was that of the +Arctic icefields, for minutes at a time, except now and then the +creak of a yard that broke harshly on the ear, or the pleasant sound +of a light swell at long intervals that chuckled to itself under +the counter; and we floated motionless upon the deep, wrapped in an +absolute and breathless calm. And the golden, bell-like tones of the +exquisite <i>andante</i> from the Sonata Appassionata seemed to dwell +in the air; tones which Beethoven said was his own conception of the +music of the spheres, for the movement occurred to him one night in the +hills, while contemplating the stellar glories of a clear, tranquil +sky. Oh, what majesty in such a night! Oh, the solemn grandeur of +this phase of nature! Indeed, it is difficult to say which exerts the +more powerful influence over the mind: a gale of wind or a great, +soundless<span class="pagenum" id="Page_354">[Pg 354]</span> calm, when every star in the firmament seems reflected in +the motionless sea.</p> + +<p>Throughout this forenoon, too, the wind was of the lightest sort, +though this fact was productive of some little diversion. Shortly +after ten o’clock the captain called our attention to several sharks +wandering about far down in the blue depths under the stern, and +presently several dolphin appeared hovering about the rudder, offering, +with their agility and marvellous coloring, a striking contrast to the +slothful, sombre sharks. All at once the old man ran off, and then +returned with a formidable engine of destruction, consisting of a huge +iron hook strong enough to sustain an ox, with a short length of wire +rope attached to it. His other hand clutched a mass of oleaginous +pork, from which liquid fat exuded in the rays of a baking sun. This +delicacy, the mere sight of which would revolt the stomach of an emu, +the skipper gayly secured on the hook, and then bent the whole affair +to a long line as big as the main-brace. This gear would really have +been suitable for the capture of nothing smaller than a ninety-barrel +whale; but the captain surveyed his arrangements with much urbanity +and dropped the contrivance over the stern. There was no shark in +sight, but one speedily appeared, and propelled himself with great +caution toward the bait; his eye caught the cable then to which it +was fastened, and he sheered off. When he had manœuvred thus several +times, he seemed to summon his friends, for three more of the creatures +mysteriously appeared. They, too, were very shy at first; but at length +they began to turn slightly on their backs as they approached, a sure +sign that before long they would seize the bait. At last the largest +one swam boldly up to it, turned over, opened his wicked jaws, his +double row of triangular teeth closed upon the extreme edge of the +meat, and he deftly tore the whole piece off the hook,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_355">[Pg 355]</span> while he seemed +to smile as he leisurely rejoined his companions.</p> + +<p>Then the skipper fetched another lump of pork-fat, which he kneaded +and squelched in his hand as he walked along. Again the same wily +beast took the bait, and once more we drew up the naked hook. After +a repetition of this, the skipper, with much pomposity, rigged the +harpoon and bade me stand by with it while he endeavored to entice the +sharks close under the counter with another pound of pork. Several +times I hove the weapon without the least risk to any of the sharks, +though I all but followed the harpoon overboard at every lunge, and +once contrived to stand in the bight of the rope, which nearly cut me +in two; and we could perceive the iron plunge down fathom after fathom +in the transparent water. Finally I did strike one in the middle of +the back, but the harpoon bounded off his tough hide and he glided +away unharmed. This was discouraging, and we desisted soon afterward, +as we had to carry on the attack under a terrific sun. The sharks +looked unspeakably comfortable, sauntering around below the rudder, now +sinking out of sight, now cleaving the surface at a distance with their +sharp dorsal fins, upright like sabres, and I was secretly well pleased +that we didn’t kill one, for I must confess that the sight of a shark +does not throw me into convulsions of horror, nor does it consume me +with the fanatical thirst for slaughter, which is the general effect +produced by the appearance of one of these beasts.</p> + +<p>Each of these sharks was attended by the familiar little pilot-fish, +about the size of a small mackerel, with his body wonderfully +marked with bands of dark blue and black, as sharply defined as the +turning-post of a croquet set; strange it surely is to see these tiny +fellows fearlessly maintain their position just under the gaping mouth.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_356">[Pg 356]</span></p> + +<p>As indicated elsewhere, Mr. Goggins hasn’t much to say these days, +although he has recovered somewhat from the cataleptic state into which +the stabbing of the second mate threw him. He was quite talkative last +night in his watch, and congratulated me upon my not smoking, saying, +“I’m glad to see you don’t use these cigareets; they’re bad things, and +I can tell you why,—’cause they’re full o’ nicoline.”</p> + +<p>The second mate is pulling slowly along, with sunken cheeks and hollow +eyes, an ill-looking man, and what is more miserable than a sick +sailor? Every one aboard ship has his own duties to perform, and scant +attention and no sympathy is vouchsafed to the luckless man confined to +his room. Latitude, 11° 49′ north; longitude, 123° 5′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">August 29</span></p> + +<p>The northeast Trades! Yes, the northeast Trades! Even the skipper is +pretty sure that they have arrived, though we are still three degrees +south of where they generally are in August. It is a piece of very good +luck, for we all expected to be several days more in the Doldrums, and +those who were on deck when the wind came in a squall at sunrise hardly +dared to breathe or move for fear that it would be nothing but a puff. +But as the hours wore on and the breeze momentarily increased, it was +soon apparent that the Trades had reached us. How vastly different +to-day is from yesterday! Then, all stagnation and blighting, withering +heat; now, all motion and joy and sparkling sea. We had not a breath of +air for eight solid hours last night, though, and the wrath of Abner +Scruggs was very, very great. From eight to ten, during his watch on +deck, we, sitting on the cabin-house, could hear him muttering and +thumping away by the wheel-house, and we privately smiled thereat. +Finally, after a couple of hours of this harlequin<span class="pagenum" id="Page_357">[Pg 357]</span> act, my wife went +below; and then I went over to him and listened to the liveliest sort +of arguments that he had with himself for nearly an hour. In vain he +tried to draw me into them, and as a last resort he began on Central +Park. “That’s a queer kind of a park, that is, where they won’t let +people walk on the grass. Why don’t they have it like the park in +Sydney? What’s a park for, anyway? Why don’t they put the thing in a +glass case?” But I let him gibber on, and when I turned in, a little +later, he had wrought himself into one of his passions.</p> + +<p>A day or two ago I was reading at the wheel-house door. The hour was +ten in the morning, and hardly a sound was to be heard. The old man was +below asleep and the mate was at work on the main-deck. Old Kelly was +steering, and suddenly he leaned over and said, “Can you tell me about +where she is, sir?” in a whisper. Then he went on, “I want to tell +you somethin’; if ’twasn’t for you and the lady there’d be trouble in +this ship.” “There has been trouble,” said I. Kelly glanced askance at +me and answered disdainfully, “Ho! I don’t call <i>that</i> trouble; +that’s what you expect when you ship in a Yankee. What I mean is real +trouble that begins with M. But the men, even the worst of ’em, have +got such a regard for your lady for the way she behaved off Cape Horn, +and all through the voyage for that matter, that they’re holdin’ in +for her sake.” Whether this was said with some ulterior motive it is +impossible to tell; but Kelly spoke in a calm voice as if he meant +what he said. What he suggested by his mysterious M. was a word that +I have never heard a sailor pronounce,—mutiny. To them it is a word +too full of deadly meaning for ordinary conversation. For, generally +speaking, there are only two things aboard ship,—one is duty, and the +other is mutiny. All that a seaman is ordered to do is duty; all that +he refuses to do is mutiny.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_358">[Pg 358]</span> Rarx is beginning to lose heart as well as +flesh, and says that if he lives to see the Farallones he’ll surprise +himself. This is unfortunate, and we are doing all we can to cheer him +up. Latitude, 12° 30′ north; longitude, 124° 30′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">August 30</span></p> + +<p>Our course has been bad for twenty-four hours, as during the greater +part of that period we steered nothing to the northward of west, +and our present course would take us to Honolulu in 165°. Ships are +generally forced over to 140° or 145° even under ordinary conditions, +and if we do not find ourselves 20° west of San Francisco when the +Trades let go, we will do well. The weather, though, is perfect; warmer +certainly than in the southeast Trades, but not at all disagreeable in +the shade,—about 81° at mid-day. A very acceptable change since we +took this wind is that there have been no more rain-squalls. During +the late Doldrums these squalls were at times practically continuous; +and while the old man did finally rig up a bit of canvas, six feet by +six, to serve as an awning, under which we had to crouch as though in +the ’tween-decks, it was not of much use in the rain. It was extremely +annoying to have to gather up the backgammon-board, two novels, a lot +of sewing, a pillow, and two chairs and dash for the wheel-house half +a dozen times a watch. Often the squalls lasted only two or three +minutes, yet there was enough water in each shower to drench everything.</p> + +<p>There is a very ingenious way of disposing of the main-top-sail and +top-gallant-halliards on the “Higgins.” They are always very bulky, +heavy ropes, and when coiled over a pin in the rail are very unsightly +objects. To obviate this, there are two large reels in the monkey-rail +at the forward end of the cabin-house, one on each side, upon which +the free end of these ropes are wound when the yards have<span class="pagenum" id="Page_359">[Pg 359]</span> been +mastheaded. A bit of twine then secures the reel to prevent the +halliards paying out, and another piece stops it (the rope) up to the +shrouds, clear of the men’s heads on the main-deck. When the yards have +to be lowered, a sharp jerk breaks the twine, and the halliards run +off without danger of fouling. It is a clever scheme and ought to be +in more general use, the only drawback to it being that a hand has to +mount the poop and reel up the halliards again when the yards have been +hoisted; but that is a small matter.</p> + +<p>I went down into the lazarette yesterday afternoon, after Louis had +gone forward, and found that his quarters were not so stiflingly hot +as might have been expected; the Frenchman still bears his confinement +with extraordinary indifference. Mr. Rarx passed a very bad night. +Latitude, 13° 17′ north; longitude, 126° west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">August 31</span></p> + +<p>On this, the last day of August, we have but little cause for +rejoicing. In the first place, the wind has been dead against us +and light at that; and, in the second place, the captain is in so +churlish a temper as to barely answer yes and no to civil questions. +Shortly before four o’clock yesterday the wind began to ease up, and +by nightfall had dwindled to a light air, and then whipped into the +north-northwest, so that our course up to eight this morning was west, +and we got that only by pinching her, so that our speed was seldom more +than two knots. The night was a gorgeous one, with a sky that glistened +with golden stars, while a new moon hung low down in the west; and far +away in the southeast, over the face of a black cloud, shimmered waves +of heat-lightning, lovely in the extreme.</p> + +<p>By morning, as there were no indications of coming up, the captain +concluded to tack ship, which was done<span class="pagenum" id="Page_360">[Pg 360]</span> between eight and nine o’clock; +and we discovered, when braced up on the port tack, that we looked up +to north-northeast, which was by no means bad. At the present time, +three in the afternoon, the wind is a fresh, even a strong breeze, and +we are doing pretty well except for a long head-swell, into which we +plunge so heavily that we are not doing more than five knots instead of +seven or eight.</p> + +<p>The captain is in a worse humor than ever before, though it must be +said that the evolution of tacking ship this morning was accomplished +quietly, and, what is much more remarkable, without a single oath. +Conversation at meals has been almost completely suspended again, +except that my wife and I converse together, ignoring the captain +entirely; this would be childish behavior on our part were it not +that every remark that we have made lately has met with either a +rough denial or indifferent silence. He asked us the other day +whether Captain Kingdon of the “Mandalore” used to lose his temper +in calms and head-winds; a question which we found much pleasure in +answering in a vehement negative. The sailors have resumed most of +their erstwhile good humor, perhaps on account of the proximity of +the end of the voyage; it is reassuring to see them thus again, for +a score of brooding, scowling sailors aboard ship is an unpleasant +reminder of what the men could do if they were determined. Indeed, +from a passenger’s point of view, I would far rather see a captain in +a perpetual bad humor than the men. Considering all the ill-treatment +that sailors get, it is extraordinary at first sight that they do not +vindicate more frequently their wrongs at sea by quietly dropping +the after-guard over the side. It is perfectly feasible to dispose +of the officer of the watch at night. A single well-aimed blow of an +iron belaying-pin in the helmsman’s hand is all that is necessary; +and the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_361">[Pg 361]</span> captain and the other mate are asleep below and both could +be readily made away with. But on close inspection two very strong +reasons are disclosed showing why it is that the sailor does not more +readily appear in the <i>rôle</i> of avenger. The first reason is, not +being a navigator, what is to become of the ship? and if they do reach +a port, what credible story can be concocted? Murder will out. The +second reason is to be found in that wonderful sense of obedience to +captain and officers apparent in even the most desperate and abandoned +seamen; so blind is their submission to authority, however grossly and +fiendishly it may be abused, that they sometimes at the present day, in +our own long-voyage ships, suffer death itself rather than resist him +whom the law has invested with power so absolute that the might of a +sultan suffers in comparison! But too few of our sailing-ship-masters +seem to be possessed of the ordinary feelings of humanity toward their +crews. After they have exhausted all other defences in upholding their +bad treatment of sailors, they nearly always conclude by saying, “Well, +what have we got in our ships? A lot of Dutch and English scum that +you’ve got to lick h—— out of afore they’ll obey an order.” But how +about the “S. P. Hitchcock” and the “St. James,” commanded respectively +by Captains Gates and Banfield? Here are two deep-water American +ships, who also have to take whatever crews the shipping masters give +them, so that they are not a whit better off in the quality of their +sailors than other vessels; yet there is never any trouble aboard of +them at sea, and good-will and cheerfulness pervade both vessels. They +have made some rattling good passages, and are positive proof that +discipline can be obtained without violence; and, after nearly four +months’ experience here, I believe that I am justified in expressing my +opinion, which is, that <i>brutality toward and the continual driving<span class="pagenum" id="Page_362">[Pg 362]</span> +and hazing of sailors do not conduce to order and discipline</i>. +Commands are not obeyed here with the precision that they were on the +“Mandalore,” and many and many a time I have seen the men make a great +show of hauling on the braces when in reality they were not pulling a +hundred pounds. Knock them over for this? No, it only makes them worse +next time, but that’s what Yankee mates generally do. If work is to be +got out of sailors, <i>they must be treated justly to begin with</i>; +if not, you will get no more out of them than out of any other class.</p> + +<p>The apathy and ignorance of people ashore is more remarkable than +anything else in connection with this subject of brutality to sailors. +I even know a young man who owns shares in some of our largest +square-riggers who was utterly amazed when I told him of the record +of one of his own captains. In justice to him, though, I must say +that he took no personal interest in the ships other than that they +should pay good dividends, and he really was in total ignorance of the +<i>modus operandi</i> of American captains. But it is not so with the +vast majority of our sailing-ship-owners, who are fully aware of the +manner in which their vessels are run, and who go bail to the extent +of many hundreds of dollars for their inhuman captains when the latter +are occasionally held to answer for some particularly atrocious deed, +and who in many cases connive at the disappearance of blackguard mates +when they are seeking to escape ashore from infuriated sailors whom +these mates have half killed at sea. Cannot something be done to compel +decent treatment of our long-voyage seamen? Sailors must be ruled with +a hand of iron, for there are desperate characters among them; but, in +heaven’s name, let him who wields the power be compelled to administer +justice in his punishment of the men under him, that the disgrace +and shame which now rest upon our long-voyage<span class="pagenum" id="Page_363">[Pg 363]</span> sailing ships may be +removed, and that the offensive name of “Yankee hell-ship,” by which +our deep-water vessels are known to foreign sailors, may be forever +obliterated. Latitude, 13° 43′ north; longitude, 127° west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">September 1</span></p> + +<p>Now in truth hath Disappointment come upon us and doth hover sullenly +o’erhead on sable pinions. The Trades, the lovely northeast Trades, +which we fondly imagined had reached us, did not materialize! For, +having blown fitfully for two days, driving us two degrees farther +west, they vanished, and in their stead a fresh westerly wind has +arisen, and the weather is once more sticky and showery and the heavens +are piled high-with huge wool-packs and glistening thunder-heads. But +this is not all. We are plunging into a steep, heavy swell, that is +surging down from the north in great, long, blue heaves; and it is a +grand thing to look forward and see the jib-boom now rearing up higher +and higher towards the zenith, now diving down, down into the deep +quiet hollows, as the ship tumbles heavily to the catheads into the +creamy waters.</p> + +<p>We had quite a lively time at dinner to-day, for the westerly wind +had smoothed the kinks out of the old man’s temper and he commenced +a jocose argument with the mate about American politics. It will be +remembered that Mr. Goggins is by birth an Englishman, but his papers +give him the right to talk about “hour constitootion,” of which he +takes advantage at every opportunity. I laughed at everything they said +to egg them on, and at length they both began to wax wroth, the mate in +a few minutes being quite wet with perspiration, so that at last all +he could say was, “Be gar’s sake, sir,” which he repeated indefinitely +like a hungry parrot asking for a cracker. Finally, though, the skipper +spoiled the fun by getting really angry, and,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_364">[Pg 364]</span> gazing with piercing eye +at Goggins for the space of half a minute, he utterly extinguished him +with, “Well, I guess you’d better shut up; you don’t seem to know much +about it.” Latitude, 15° north; longitude, 126° west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">September 2</span></p> + +<p>Very strong winds from west shifting to southeast; high, northerly sea; +excessive humidity and incessant rain-squalls. These have been the +weather conditions for twelve hours, to which must be added a fall of +thirty one-hundredths of an inch in the aneroid. Yesterday afternoon +at four o’clock there were plenty of cyclonic indications round about +us: a heavy swell, suffocating humidity, a wild, ferocious look in the +enormous cumulus clouds, and a curious hot wind that at times strangely +increased to strong gusts that hummed with a dreary drone in the +rigging and then instantly subsided. Towards five o’clock the windward +horizon grew to a uniform gray, oily, and dull as lead, with an +indescribably menacing aspect in the low, greasy scud that hurried in +tattered wisps just over the mast-heads. The captain was very uneasy, +and admitted the proximity (if not of a cyclone) of one of those +furious summer northers that often sweep across the North Pacific; and +it must be remembered that we are close to the cyclonic belt which +extends out into the ocean from the Central American seaboard.</p> + +<p>At dusk both wind and sea had increased, and by eight o’clock we were +charging into a swell large enough to merit the term majestic, the +bowsprit rising and falling fully fifty feet, for the sea was from dead +ahead, and there was wind enough to drive the ship rapidly up the slope +of a billow and then far out into space, so that she fell full upon the +breast of the next sea with a crushing force that must have wrenched +every timber in her hull.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_365">[Pg 365]</span></p> + +<p>At 9.30, as the captain and I were on the poop discussing the second +mate, there came a report from aloft, and there was the mizzen-royal +in ribbons, snapping and popping merrily away in the darkness. Then +the skipper cast loose his deep-sea voice so that it must surely have +reached force 12 in Beaufort’s scale, and the sail was secured in +short order. Throughout the night we labored heavily, while the seas +thundered over the bows and dashed against the forward house with +alarming fury, and then washed aft, where the water in the waist was +to be measured in feet, not in inches. Broadhead said that at times, +in the middle watch, the ship buried herself to the light-houses, and +that he hadn’t seen much more water aboard off Cape Horn. At three this +morning came another discharge from aloft, and away went four whole +cloths out of the lee side of the upper foretop-sail, and when daylight +came we had to send up a new sail.</p> + +<p>During the morning watch the wind shifted suddenly to southeast, and +when we went on deck it was blowing half a gale from that desirable +quarter, and the ship, with braces well rounded in, was fairly skipping +from sea to sea, save when her speed was momentarily checked by an +extra heavy one that smote her rudely full in the face and then fell +in glorious showers over the forecastle. Another fine spectacle was +afforded whenever one of the short seas, occasioned by the shift of +wind, struck the big, clumsy main-channels, when the spray shot far +into the air and was swept across the deck in snowy clouds. Altogether, +it was a scene of wonderful beauty, and we rejoiced to observe that the +dun, threatening look of the heavens had given place to dense masses +of trade-clouds and promises of plenty of clear sunshine; and if the +night was a boisterous one and the port watch had to pass the whole of +the forenoon at the pumps, our run of two hundred miles wreathed every +one’s<span class="pagenum" id="Page_366">[Pg 366]</span> face in jolly smiles, and “’Frisco” was heard repeatedly in the +men’s conversation.</p> + +<p>Writing of hurricanes awhile ago, reminds me of the pertinacity with +which the great majority of the people in our Western States allude to +their terrible tornadoes as cyclones. It would be reasonable to presume +that the inhabitants of a district subject to any peculiar atmospheric +disturbance would know and make use of the proper term for such a +phenomenon, but it seems not. Hurricane and cyclone are synonymous, and +are applied to circular storms having a diameter of from three hundred +to one thousand miles, in which the wind seldom attains a velocity of +over one hundred miles per hour, a pressure of about fifty pounds per +square foot. They have also a progressive motion varying in speed from +twenty-eight miles per hour in the United States to only eight or nine +miles in the Bay of Bengal.</p> + +<p>Tornadoes are also gyratory storms that progress in a straight line +at a mean speed of thirty miles an hour, but their path is almost +infinitesimal compared with the cyclone’s, for it is generally between +one thousand and six thousand feet in width and about forty miles +long, each individual storm completely dissolving and vanishing like a +thunder-squall in less than an hour. A cyclone may blow for days.</p> + +<p>In the fury of its rotary motion and upward suction a tornado is the +most appalling of all natural phenomena save, perhaps, the earthquake, +and the passing of one causes the most incredible and seemingly +impossible freaks. Chickens are stripped of their feathers, straws +are driven firmly into planks, and locomotives weighing fifty tons +have been over-turned without effort, the latter being possible by the +formation of a partial vacuum. Straws, however, have been driven an +eighth of an inch into a plank by an artificial<span class="pagenum" id="Page_367">[Pg 367]</span> blast of air moving +at the rate of one hundred and sixty miles per hour. The presence of a +vacuum is proved by the violent bursting outward of the closed windows +and shutters of a house in or near the track of a tornado.</p> + +<p>Many people will remember the dire results of the famous St. Louis +tornado of May, 1896, which resulted in the death of two hundred and +twenty-five persons and the loss of twelve million dollars in property +destroyed; yet there is no reason to suppose that this storm was an +unusually severe one; it simply happened to pass over a more or less +densely populated region. As usual, this tornado left behind some +remarkable mementos, the strangest of all being that a piece of pine +plank was driven by the wind head-on through the five-sixteenths inch +web of an iron girder in the approach to the St. Louis bridge! This +is a performance well known to the government Weather Bureau. Immense +blocks of sandstone set in cement were dislodged and thrown down (in +all, five hundred and eighty tons of it), together with two hundred +and eighty tons of flooring and girders, some of the latter weighing +thirteen thousand pounds each. In Lafayette Park, St. Louis, another +example of tornadic vagaries was shown by the fact that, right in the +path of the storm, surrounded closely by forest-trees which had been +wrenched bodily from the earth, stood unharmed a flimsy, straw-thatched +structure upon six light posts!</p> + +<p>Unfortunately, from the very violence of the wind, no accurate estimate +of the velocity of the gyratory movement of a tornado can be made, as +an anemometer would be useless, even if it were not destroyed. Experts +calculate, however, that the speed of the wind approximates five +hundred or six hundred miles per hour. At any rate, the destructive +force of a tornado is ten or perhaps twenty times that of a cyclone; +and if cyclones blew with the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_368">[Pg 368]</span> violence of tornadoes, the earth would +be devastated in a short while.</p> + +<p>At sea the tornado with its terrible cloud-funnel has its counterpart +in the water-spout; though in the latter the wind does not seem to +attain the same fury, as many vessels have passed through a water-spout +without very great damage. Two curious instances, however, are on +record of atmospheric freaks at sea; one of them was reported by the +American ship “Reaper.” She was proceeding toward Cape Horn in the +equatorial North Pacific, the day being perfectly fine and clear, save +for a few small, detached clouds, and the wind a light breeze, when she +suddenly lost all of her light sails in a blast that came apparently +out of a clear sky, while at the moment there was nothing but the +light wind on deck. Again, the ship “Sintram,” Captain Woodside, was +almost totally dismasted off the West Indies, homeward bound from +the East; the weather was fine and a four-knot breeze was blowing +on deck when the upper spars seemed to melt away, she having been +struck by a similar blast from a clear sky. Subsequently I wrote to +the forecast official at New York asking whether any such accidents +ever happened ashore; he answered that in Nebraska and Kansas similar +strong whirlwinds have been known, in perfectly clear weather, to tear +the upper portions of forest-trees completely off, including large +branches, while the leaves and twigs nearer the ground were untouched. +This indisputably proves that only a few feet mark the boundary-line +between atmosphere in a state of rest and wind of inconceivable +violence. As has been shown, such instances occur also in tornadoes, +which, of course, are nothing but immense whirlwinds.</p> + +<p>It is my earnest hope that the reader has not been worried by this long +meteorological dissertation, which has nothing to do with the voyage; +but as the forecasting of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_369">[Pg 369]</span> the weather has lately been of increasing +interest to the public, perhaps I may be pardoned for my digression. +Latitude, 17° 55′ north; longitude, 125° 30′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">September 3</span></p> + +<p>It seems to be tolerably safe to say now that at last we have picked +up the northeast Trades. During yesterday afternoon the wind hauled +constantly to the northward, and at ten last night it was northeast by +north, blowing a fresh breeze; indeed, by this morning it had increased +so that we have not been able to carry the sky-sails since, and we did +another three degrees of latitude; imagine three hundred and fifty +miles of latitude here in forty-eight hours. It is very refreshing, +and even the skipper has recovered his equanimity. Up to noon to-day, +though, the weather was very showery, the fine rain blowing in level +clouds across the ship, as dense as fog. The greatest change, however, +is in the temperature, for the air has fallen 15° and the sea 10°, +so that we begin to appreciate that in thirty-six hours, if this +wind holds, we will have emerged from the torrid zone. It is quite +impossible for us to realize that in another fortnight this voyage will +probably be an event of the past. No one who has not made a long voyage +can imagine the excitement, actually the excitement, occasioned by the +speculation as to how much longer the passage will last, when only +ten days or so remain. There is continuously present such an element +of luck when solely dependent upon the wind, that you are constantly +estimating and calculating how far the Trades will extend, how the +winds will be afterward, the chances of fogs and calms on the coast, +and other equally important questions. This doesn’t mean necessarily +that you want to get ashore; it is the involuntary and irresistible +anticipation of an impending change, though my wife<span class="pagenum" id="Page_370">[Pg 370]</span> will probably +not regret the moment when the tow-boat gives us her line outside the +Heads. Latitude, 20° 52′ north; longitude, 126° 40′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">September 4</span></p> + +<p>This was a perfectly ideal day, with brisk northeast winds, smooth sea, +cloudless sky, and a noon temperature of 72°, and 68° at midnight. +This is a very lucky chance that we are having here; we are going +well, about eight knots, and our course has been to the northward of +northwest by north, showing that the Trades are well to the eastward.</p> + +<p>I wonder how many people have ever seen the scale of provisions as +laid down by the United States government for the vitualling of +long-voyage ships? As I have said, the curious part of it is, though, +that no attention is ever paid to it on our ships, except under unusual +conditions. Yet it is not so very curious that no attempt is made to +observe the scale, for almost everything in connection with our sailors +and ships is performed in an irregular manner. Behold the scale.</p> + + +<table class="autotable"> +<tr> +<td class="tdc"> </td> +<td class="tdc">BREAD.</td> +<td class="tdc">BEEF.</td> +<td class="tdc">PORK.</td> +<td class="tdc">FLOUR.</td> +<td class="tdc">PEASE.</td> +<td class="tdc">TEA.</td> +<td class="tdc">COFFEE.</td> +<td class="tdc">SUGAR.</td> +<td class="tdc">WATER.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdc"></td> +<td class="tdc">Lb.</td> +<td class="tdc">Lbs.</td> +<td class="tdc">Lbs.</td> +<td class="tdc"> Lb.</td> +<td class="tdc"> Pt.</td> +<td class="tdc">Oz.</td> +<td class="tdc"> Oz.</td> +<td class="tdc"> Ozs.</td> +<td class="tdc"> Qts.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdc"> Sunday</td> +<td class="tdc"> 1</td> +<td class="tdc">1-1/2</td> +<td class="tdc"></td> +<td class="tdc"> 1/2</td> +<td class="tdc"></td> +<td class="tdc">1/8</td> +<td class="tdc"> 1/2</td> +<td class="tdc"> 2</td> +<td class="tdc"> 3</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdc"> Monday</td> +<td class="tdc"> 1</td> +<td class="tdc"></td> +<td class="tdc">1-1/4</td> +<td class="tdc"></td> +<td class="tdc"> 1/8</td> +<td class="tdc">1/8</td> +<td class="tdc"> 1/2</td> +<td class="tdc"> 2</td> +<td class="tdc"> 3</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdc"> Tuesday</td> +<td class="tdc"> 1</td> +<td class="tdc">1-1/2</td> +<td class="tdc"></td> +<td class="tdc"> 1/2</td> +<td class="tdc"></td> +<td class="tdc">1/8</td> +<td class="tdc"> 1/2</td> +<td class="tdc"> 2</td> +<td class="tdc"> 3</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdc"> Wednesday</td> +<td class="tdc"> 1</td> +<td class="tdc"></td> +<td class="tdc">1-1/4</td> +<td class="tdc"></td> +<td class="tdc"> 1/8</td> +<td class="tdc">1/8</td> +<td class="tdc"> 1/2</td> +<td class="tdc"> 2</td> +<td class="tdc"> 3</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdc"> Thursday</td> +<td class="tdc"> 1</td> +<td class="tdc">1-1/2</td> +<td class="tdc"></td> +<td class="tdc"> 1/2</td> +<td class="tdc"></td> +<td class="tdc">1/8</td> +<td class="tdc"> 1/2</td> +<td class="tdc"> 2</td> +<td class="tdc"> 3</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdc"> Friday</td> +<td class="tdc"> 1</td> +<td class="tdc"></td> +<td class="tdc">1-1/4</td> +<td class="tdc"></td> +<td class="tdc"> 1/8</td> +<td class="tdc">1/8</td> +<td class="tdc"> 1/2</td> +<td class="tdc"> 2</td> +<td class="tdc"> 3</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdc"> Saturday</td> +<td class="tdc"> 1</td> +<td class="tdc">1-1/2</td> +<td class="tdc"></td> +<td class="tdc"></td> +<td class="tdc"></td> +<td class="tdc">1/8</td> +<td class="tdc"> 1/2</td> +<td class="tdc"> 2</td> +<td class="tdc"> 3</td> +</tr> +</table> + + +<p>Then comes a list of substitutes, such as molasses for sugar, potatoes +for pease, etc. Other nations also have<span class="pagenum" id="Page_371">[Pg 371]</span> provision scales, but they +are adhered to; foreign schemes add oatmeal, but all sailors get too +much meat; both captains and seamen say that. Our blue-water ships +have a great name for fine “grub,” which they deserved forty years +ago, but which most of them certainly do not now. A Yankee captain +has the privilege from the owners to lay in whatever sort of stores +he thinks fit (of course neither he nor the owner ever thinks of the +law); if he is a generous man, the crew are lucky; if not, it’s a +case of hunger and hustle for four or five months. As a sample of the +manner in which the food has been given out here, the men consumed an +entire barrel of molasses during the first seventeen days that we were +at sea; since then they have had none. Other articles were scattered +around in the same reckless manner, with the natural result that the +“dainties” which ought to have lasted the whole voyage had vanished at +the latitude of the Falklands; so that ever since the men have been on +pretty hard rations, and Broadhead told me that when the old man made +the show of putting all hands on government allowance it didn’t mean +anything at all. Since the stabbing, though, all the food has been +weighed out by the mate each day in full view of the sailors, eighteen +pounds of bread (<i>i.e.</i>, hard-tack), so many pounds of beef, etc., +and the men themselves carry it to the cook, so that there can be no +fault-finding. As to the water, three quarts per day amounts in all to +fifty-four quarts, which is measured into a cask in the forecastle, and +the men are at liberty to give any portion of it they choose to the +cook in which to boil their beef and pork, or tea and coffee. These +three quarts, by the way, are for all purposes, drinking, cooking, and +washing, though most foremast hands are not much troubled with the +latter, except when it rains hard. Each man probably does not have more +than a quart and a half<span class="pagenum" id="Page_372">[Pg 372]</span> of drinking water a day, which is a truly +scanty allowance for men who are painting on a blistering deck several +hours out of the twenty-four.</p> + +<p>American captains profess to think that weighing out food to sailors +is very degrading, and they always add, “It’s too much like them +Britishers.” Personally I have never been able to perceive where +the indignity comes in. Food is weighed out in the navy, so why not +in the merchant service? I had it on my mind to-day to ask Captain +Scruggs which he really considered the more debasing, giving a man a +stipulated quantity of food, or knocking his teeth out with wooden or +iron implements and then kicking him into the scuppers; but I thought +it best to preserve peace rather than advance so hazardous a question. +Latitude, 23° 18′ north; longitude, 128° 40′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">September 5</span></p> + +<p>Oh, what magnificent weather this is! It is just like those grand days +in the southeast Trades. Our everlasting recollections of the Pacific +Ocean, both north and south, will be of weeks of a matchless climate; +deep cobalt sky, sprinkled with little pink, cirrus clouds; a calm sea +over which shoot thousands of flying-fish in glittering flight, and +soft, enchanting breezes. “What about those two or three disagreeable +days not long ago?” says the pessimist. True, they were not ideal days; +but they only serve to show off these lovely ones in all their glorious +perfection. We have, unhappily, passed the limits of the tropics, +however, having crossed the circle of Cancer yesterday at four o’clock.</p> + +<p>A few minutes ago, at the pumps, Broadhead asked me, “Would you mind +telling me why you came out here in an American ship?” I told him +why,—that, having made one voyage in an Englishman, we wanted to +compare the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_373">[Pg 373]</span> vessels; and I also reminded him that foreign ships are +not allowed to trade between American ports. “Well, you and the lady +must have lots of courage,” said he. “Now there’s the Loch Line of +ships to Australia out of London; you ought to have gone in one o’ +them.” “Yes; MacFoy told me about them,” said I. “Well, they’re worth +all you can say in favor of ’em,” continued this American; “they’re +dandies; carry lots o’ passengers, first- and second-class and +steerage. Each ship has what they call a double crew; say a ship had +fourteen men before the mast, one o’ these would have twenty-eight, +so the whole of an ordinary ship’s crew is on deck at one time, and +not a stroke o’ work is ever done aloft after eight in the morning, +so that nothing can drop on passengers’ heads.” This may seem like +getting things down to too fine a point; but any one who has voyaged +in a sailing vessel will remember how many articles drop from men +working aloft. We have seen at least a dozen objects fall during the +voyage,—knives, paint-brushes, and serving-mallets, any one of which +dropping on a man’s head from a height of at least a hundred feet would +be very painful, not to say dangerous.</p> + +<p>Perhaps the most remarkable and unusual device to enable the captain of +a vessel to pocket the wages of a crew appears in a copy of a maritime +paper, which I found to-day in a bundle of the skipper’s magazines. +It was perpetrated by the master of the British ship “S——,” and +consisted in his taking a quantity of liquors of divers sorts to sea +and retailing them to the men at immense profit. An investigation at +Liverpool showed that this enterprising man had bought twenty cases +of whiskey at three dollars and a half a dozen, which he sold to the +crew at one dollar per bottle. He also had large stores of gin and beer +on board, and the amount of money that the captain must<span class="pagenum" id="Page_374">[Pg 374]</span> have cleared +by the various transactions may be imagined when it is mentioned that +the carpenter’s bill for liquors for one voyage footed up a total of +sixty-seven dollars, and the men testified that some of them averaged +a bottle a day. It seemed to me that the captain’s punishment was +rather light, as it consisted in suspending his certificate for three +months. Of course, this is a penalty which could not be inflicted +upon an American captain, because none of our sailing-ship-masters +has a government certificate. Our law-givers do not think that any is +necessary, though they require a stiff examination in the case of a +steam-ship-master, another sparkling example of the perfection of the +United States shipping laws. Latitude, 25° 47′ north; longitude, 130° +46′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">September 6</span></p> + +<p>After breakfast this morning we trembled when we found the wind letting +go, for everything indicated a cessation in the Trades; but at ten +o’clock they freshened again, and since then we have swung handsomely +along over a light swell at seven knots. This is very gratifying, and +every day sees us a hundred and seventy-five miles nearer port. My wife +is beginning to rejoice at the prospect of fresh vegetables and fruit, +though I think I could live very comfortably on the present diet for +at least a year. I had to tell the captain to-day, though, not to have +any more stews for my sake, for I couldn’t possibly eat another one. +This is not astonishing, because, when a week out from New York, I +happened to express a desire for a stew, and on every single day since +then I have eaten some of this concoction at least once and at times +twice. Four solid, uninterrupted months of stews are apt to produce a +surfeit thereof. What was worse than anything else, though, was that +the steward, desiring to enrich the gravy, at length<span class="pagenum" id="Page_375">[Pg 375]</span> became addicted +to the disagreeable habit of thrusting large pieces of aged, canned +butter into each stew, after turning it out of the sauce-pan, so that +when the dish reached the table the surface of the stew glittered with +little iridescent, golden globules, that danced upon it like drops of +yellow quicksilver. Thus decorated, it was a very pleasing dish to +contemplate, though familiarity with it bred contempt.</p> + +<p>Every day now, particularly at supper, we enter the dining-room with +distended eyes, trying to discover some surprise in the culinary +department. Usually, however, when the covers are removed, there lie +disclosed the same old standbys,—stewed beef or mutton, cold beef and +ham, biscuits, and boiled potatoes the size of hot-house grapes, though +none the worse for that. Indeed, we went to sea with several barrels +of new Bermuda potatoes at ten dollars the barrel; this will show the +unstinted manner in which this ship was stored aft.</p> + +<p>Sometimes, though, we are stunned by some fantastic creation of the +Chinaman’s. Last night, for instance, when the steward whipped off +the huge pewter covers, each almost as big as an umbrella, we were +entranced by the appearance of something entirely new. In a deep +vegetable dish lay four enormous Welsh rarebits? Oh, the gladness of +that moment! What mattered it that the bread was a blood relative of +india-rubber, that the rarebits were clammy and inflexible, or that +the rind of a pineapple cheese had contributed to their manufacture? +Were they not a change, and as such to be venerated and exalted beyond +price? Therefore we helped ourselves reverently, as became so momentous +an occasion; and if the compound did produce an incalculable amount of +subsequent distress, we extended meek thanks and congratulations to the +little Cantonite in the galley. In truth, though, there is no fault of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_376">[Pg 376]</span> +any sort to be found with the cabin food; it is every bit as good as +when we started.</p> + +<p>Last evening, in the second dog-watch, the Scotch bosun came up to me +on the main-deck and asked how we were getting on. I told him, very +well indeed; and then he said, “Before we left I heard that a gentleman +and his wife were going out in the ship, and be gob I felt sorry for +them.” Good old MacFoy! He is continuously solicitous for our welfare; +and a day or two ago he came aft with a copy of Dickens’s “Christmas +Stories” which he had found in the forecastle library furnished by the +Seamen’s Friend Society, and said that he had found a fine sea story +for me to read in the book, called “The Wreck of the Golden Mary.” +It is a fact worthy of note that this rough sailor-man is the only +individual whom I have ever met who has read this delightful account +of a shipwreck off Cape Horn. The best-read man whom I ever knew said +that he had never even heard of it. In every art, though, there seem to +be one or two jewels that exist unknown even to the connoisseur. How +many musicians are there, thorough musicians though they may be, who +know the gorgeous, glorious chorus in A, <i>andante sostenuto</i>, from +Schubert’s Lazarus? Gorgeous in its tone colors, glorious in its fire +and rhythm, it is an almost unknown fragment from that transcendent +mind. Latitude, 27° 58′ north; longitude, 132° 20′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">September 7</span></p> + +<p>Nothing but a faint breeze remains of the northeast Trades. In the +Pacific at this season they are generally a failure, and they carried +us through only twelve degrees of latitude. We are beginning to +appreciate how hard it is going to be to get into the land in the +latitude of San Francisco, unless we soon take the westerly winds that +are<span class="pagenum" id="Page_377">[Pg 377]</span> supposed to blow out here. We are now well to the westward of +’Frisco, ten degrees in fact, and it is impossible to calculate how +much farther we will have to go; old Goggins, a year ago, bound up to +Nanaimo from Acapulco, fetched over to 160° west before he got a slant +north. To-day is a great deal warmer than yesterday, with at times a +nearly glassy sea and one hundred and ten miles of the two degrees of +latitude that we made were done in the first sixteen hours.</p> + +<p>Last evening I had another session with the garrulous Scot. “I’ll tell +ye somethin’ about the ‘H. D. MacGregor’; she’s the toughest ship I +ever was in, though there’s one still worse. Cap’n Summers is a corker; +he’s a little man, but very broad and strong, with a fearful temper; +he’s all bruk up, though.”</p> + +<p>“What broke him up?” said I.</p> + +<p>“Jumpin’ after the men,” answered David; “he’s hardly got a sound bone +in his body; they do say his back’s broke, but I never thought it. +But I did see him smash one of his legs. He had that temper that if +he wanted to reach a man he just jumped down on top of him where he +stood. I mind one afternoon, just before we got into ’Frisco two or +three years ago, when I was bosun with him, one of the men was doin’ +somethin’ aft on the main-deck. Summers said a few words to him, and +the feller didn’t say ‘yes, sir,’ soon enough to suit him, so th’ old +man jumped right off the poop down on the main-deck, full eight feet. +He meant to lep on top o’ the sailor; but just as he jumped the ship +give a roll, and he fell into a water-barrel near by. His left leg +brought up sharp ag’in’ the chimes o’ the cask, and crack! went his +thigh-bone. Lucky for him we were only two days from port, and we fixed +him up pretty well till we got in.”</p> + +<p>Yesterday afternoon the top of the deck-house was<span class="pagenum" id="Page_378">[Pg 378]</span> painted a beautiful, +lustrous, pearly gray, and very fine it looked, glistening in the +bright sunshine. Not a drop of rain had fallen all day until fifteen +minutes after it was finished, when a light shower passed over us, +extending not five hundred yards in any direction. It lasted not one +minute, but it completely ruined the wet paint; and it was then that we +heard the gentle voice of the mate raised in blasphemous remonstrance. +Latitude, 29° 48′ north; longitude, 134° 6′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">September 8</span></p> + +<p>Just as we had finished writing up our journals yesterday afternoon +there came a loud patter of rain overhead and a heavy puff from the +eastward that laid the ship well over. Still, we didn’t pay much +attention to it for some time; but, finding that we moved steadily +along without righting, I went on deck to find the ocean covered with +white-caps to the horizon, which was thick with dense, gray, very +windy-looking clouds. We were flying through the water at ten knots, +and heading up north by west true, which was very fine; but, even as +we looked, there came a slight but portentous heave from ahead that +foretold a northerly swell. And so it proved, for by 8 <span class="allsmcap">P.M.</span> +our progress had dwindled to six knots, as we went pitching and diving +into an ugly head-sea. It is astonishing how even a moderately heavy +swell from ahead will check the speed of a ship, even with a strong +wind blowing. A steamer will cleave right through a tall swell without +any perceptible difference in her speed, a fact proved to us once +when, in crossing the Atlantic in the “Etruria,” we encountered a +head-sea that buried the entire bows at every plunge; yet the speed +was lowered by only a quarter of a knot. Even a sailing yacht will +overcome a head-swell in a very creditable manner; but when a massive, +clumsy square-rigger runs into one,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_379">[Pg 379]</span> farewell to even a moderate run. +She stops at every sea for an appreciable time, till the impetus of so +ponderous a mass asserts itself and she tumbles into the next valley. +So it was with us all through the night, though we made good a fine +course north-northwest.</p> + +<p>A fact little known generally is that in former years there existed in +our ships what was known as a hospital tax. It was finally abandoned, +not more than fifteen years ago, and consisted in each man’s paying +forty cents a month as long as he was on board a given vessel toward a +common fund, the total sum being handed to the proper persons on the +ship’s arrival for the maintenance of the marine hospital at the port +to which she was bound, provided that such a port was of sufficient +importance to warrant an institution of this sort. I think this was a +pretty good idea, and cannot think why it was abolished. On a ship like +this one, for instance, the amount at the end of a four-months’ voyage +would be nearly forty dollars. Yet no one on board would feel the loss +of the dollar and a half that he had contributed. Latitude, 32° 7′ +north; longitude, 135° 6′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">September 9</span></p> + +<p>Yesterday afternoon a sail was sighted from the fore-sky-sail-yard, +and at once threw everybody into tumult of excitement. Truly, a long +time had passed since we had beheld a vessel of any sort, for the last +time that we saw anything fashioned by man’s hand was seven weeks ago, +off the Horn. We beat this record on our first voyage, however, when +sixty-five days passed without our sighting a vessel. The ship “I. F. +Chapman,” however, arrived at New York from Manila shortly before we +sailed, having been at sea one hundred and twenty-five days, and during +all that time not a single craft of any description sailed into her +ken!</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_380">[Pg 380]</span></p> + +<p>At five o’clock the upper sails of our new friend were in sight from +the deck, and I walked to the break of the poop, where the mate was, to +ask his opinion of her. He was extremely pompous, and talked with such +assurance that you would suppose he had just come off the stranger. +She had not risen to her upper topsails when Mr. Goggins said, “Ho! +I know ’er; she’s a barkentine that trades between San Francisco +and the Hawaiian Islands!” (I have never met a captain or mate who +said Sandwich Islands.) This was to exhibit his infinite knowledge +of the Pacific coast. Now, when hull down, I make it a rule never to +contradict a sailor when he gives an opinion as to how a square-rigger +is sailing, whether on or off the wind, or what her precise rig is; +few objects are more puzzling, even to an experienced eye. But on this +occasion I had a pair of very excellent glasses on the vessel, and +suggested that she was either a bark or a ship steering by the wind. +“Naw, naw,” shouted the mate, with a backward sweep of his arm; “she’s +a barkentine, a-runnin’ free.” An hour later it proved to be a British +ship close-hauled on the port tack, standing to the eastward. The mate +was overwhelmed with chagrin, but his cup of misery was not yet full, +for when the old man went on deck last night at ten, the moon being +very bright, he asked him whether the ship was still in sight, to which +the mate answered, “She’s not, sir.” “Then what’s that?” asked the +skipper, pointing under the spanker. There, on the quarter, dim, but in +plain view, was the handsome stranger, and she had gone around on our +tack.</p> + +<p>Last evening we witnessed a sunset that was the most impressive of +the whole voyage. An hour before the sun disappeared we noticed great +cumulo-nimbus clouds marshalling themselves in the west, the horizon +then being veiled in a curious, diaphanous mist. When we came up<span class="pagenum" id="Page_381">[Pg 381]</span> +from supper, though, the sun had nearly reached the sea-rim, and for +ten minutes we were the enchanted spectators of most exquisite cloud +scenery. High up toward the zenith two ranges of heavy, gloomy cloud +mountains were reared, peak on peak, forming in themselves a scene +of remarkable grandeur, and right between these purple ramparts, and +just then touching the horizon, lay the great, blazing globe of fire, +edging the immense vapory masses with a fringe as of living flame +and transmuting the clouds into glowing pictures of the Delectable +Mountains, more beautiful than artist ever conceived, with a suggestion +of the Celestial City itself in the surpassing glory of the moment. As +Handel said when composing the “Messiah,” “I did think that I did see +all heaven before me, and the great God Himself.” The entire spectacle +was visible through the thin mist, now changed into a veil of radiant +bronze, putting a finishing touch upon a scene which, for magnificence +of coloring and stately splendor, we have never seen equalled.</p> + +<p>No sooner had the orb of day vanished than out soared the moon from +behind a sable cloud and a night of ineffable peace and purity +followed, with now and then a weird effect produced by a guny floating +slowly across the moon’s face, with the appearance of a gigantic, +prehistoric bat. Oh, how superb Nature is when viewed thus from the +deck of a sailing ship! How can a man deny God at such moments as +these? How can he say that he is lonely when he is surrounded by such +wonderful memorials of His earthly magnificence? Latitude, 34° 5′ +north; longitude, 137° 14′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">September 10</span></p> + +<p>We can stand but very little more of this northerly wind, for we are +getting very anxious to go on the other tack. Last night and this +morning the wind was very unsteady, and we alternately broke off to +west-northwest and came up<span class="pagenum" id="Page_382">[Pg 382]</span> to northwest by north. It would be useless +to tack ship at long as we can hold as good a course as the former, for +we would have to make a little southing on the other leg. By to-morrow +we will probably be in the latitude of our destination, though a +thousand miles west of it, and the skipper intimates that he will then +let her come round whether or no.</p> + +<p>This morning, it being the first occasion for a long while, we had +a brace of fresh eggs for breakfast, which when poached were so +indescribably delicious that the memory of them lingered long and +sweetly in the palate. It is only about once in three weeks that our +barren, emaciated hens honor us in this fashion, and when they do, our +gratitude is boundless. Ordinarily, my wife’s breakfast consists of +fresh, crisp soda biscuit, a boiled potato, and a cup of cocoa; my own +comprising soda biscuit, potatoes, jam, and tepid water. It is a matter +of surprise to every one who has experienced a lack of ice how readily +one becomes accustomed to being without it; by the seventh or eighth +day the desire for iced water has passed entirely away and doesn’t +return except in case of illness. People generally regard a man who +refuses any of the customary matutinal beverages with the most extreme +astonishment; when he declines coffee, they open their eyes; when he +refuses tea, they begin to murmur; and when he also denies cocoa, they +drop everything and look intently at him, as though they expected to +discover some visible proof of his abstinence. “Why, but your health,” +these people cry; “every one needs something hot in the morning.” This +is quite false, even in winter weather, as anyone can prove to one’s +own satisfaction by shunning so strong a stimulant as coffee for a +fortnight and taking only water at breakfast; nearly everybody would +feel great benefit from such a course in less than a week.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_383">[Pg 383]</span></p> + +<p>One would think that long-voyage ship-masters would grow to detest salt +and dried meats and tinned vegetables, but they do not; and Captain +Scruggs affirms that after one or two good “feeds” of fresh meat ashore +after every voyage he wants to return to his salt beef; and I have yet +to see the captain or mate who preferred the finest pressed tongue and +canned corned beef to ordinary salt junk; they cling to it with a truly +wonderful pertinacity.</p> + +<p>The captain detailed to us last evening the ingenious method of loading +coal at Newcastle, Australia. A ship there hauls in close to the pier, +along the edge of which extends a railway track. A train of coal-cars +is then backed down on the wharf, each car holding five tons. They are +then uncoupled, a hydraulic crane lifts each one silently from the +track, swings it over a given hatch, the bottom drops automatically, +precipitating the coal into the hold, and the car is then swung back +again and placed on the rails, and another takes its place. The same +method is now or was once employed at Newport, Wales.</p> + +<p>In the United States chutes are in general favor for loading colliers, +especially in the coastwise trade, which is conducted by means of +fore-and-aft schooners, some of which are as large as many ships. The +“W. B. Palmer,” for instance, registers about two thousand tons, with a +carrying capacity of thirty-five hundred, equal to that of the “Hosea +Higgins,” while several range well over fifteen hundred registered +tons. In spite of the encroachments of steam, these mammoth schooners +seem to more than hold their own, as the fleet is constantly being +increased. Ten years ago a vessel like the “Governor Ames,” or any +of the Randalls, paid from twenty to twenty-five per cent., though +the profits are now probably somewhat reduced. The “Ames” has loaded +twenty-five hundred tons of coal at Norfolk in nine hours, which is the +best work on record, as this<span class="pagenum" id="Page_384">[Pg 384]</span> included trimming, and everything else, +all ready for sea. This phenomenal speed was attained by simultaneously +working the four hatches, rivers of coal continuously sliding into the +hold through the chutes. At Aden and Port Said the steamers are coaled +entirely by hand in quite an interesting manner: A lighter of coal +is secured alongside a steamer, aboard of which is a swarm of black +men, mostly Kroumen, each with a shallow, wicker basket as large as +a dish-pan. As soon as the lighter is made fast two cargo ports are +opened in the steamer’s hull, one forward and one abaft the bunkers. +The men then fill their baskets, which they carry upon their heads, and +march in single file through the forward port, empty their baskets as +they pass the bunkers without pausing, and issue from the after-opening +into the lighter, where a freshly-filled basket awaits each. So great +is the number of men that a solid black stream passes through the +steamer; and though each basket holds but twenty pounds of coal, it is +loaded into the bunkers at the rate of one hundred tons per hour. On +our return from India in a P. and O. steamer through the Red Sea we +coaled thus at Aden, by electric light; the weather was drizzly (itself +a curiosity), and when the moisture condensed on the naked, sooty backs +of the Kroumen, they appeared as though clad in a mail of sparkling +jet; and as they maintained a dismal chant throughout the process, the +whole scene resembled a picture from the land of gnomes and pixies. +Latitude, 35° 50′ north; longitude, 139° 20′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">September 11</span></p> + +<p>The winter of our discontent is now at its height. Vainly do we +endeavor to make easting; we cannot, for the wind for a long time has +been at northeast instead of between north and west, as it should +be. At four this morning,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_385">[Pg 385]</span> exasperated beyond endurance, I heard the +skipper growl to the mate, “We’ll let her go round, anyway; maybe we’ll +fetch Cape San Lucas.” We did make good an easterly course for a while, +but at five we broke off to east-southeast, which, with the variation, +was southeast three-quarters east, a preposterous course; so we went +around again at eight, and are still pegging away on the starboard +tack, making good north by west, and only twenty miles south of ’Frisco.</p> + +<p>Every opportunity the dour Scot has for conversation now he embraces. +At seven last evening, sitting on the main-hatch, he said, “I’ll bet +you never heard what ‘Long John’ (Pettersen) said to the mate one night +off Cape Horn; ’twas that night when we had the worst snow-squalls. I +dunno what the row was about, but Mr. Goggins called John up on the +poop and began to blackguard him; then he let him have it once or twice +in the face about as hard as I ever saw, and was just goin’ to kick him +down the poop-ladder, when down jumps Long John on the main-deck, turns +around and yells, ‘You come down here and I’ll break yer —— —— +neck!’ and he’d ’a done it, too. What did Mr. Goggins do? Walked aft +and looked into the binnacle. ‘That settles you in my mind, me buck,’ +says I to meself. I don’t believe he had a right to hit John, for, if I +do say so, he’s the willingest sailor I ever had to do with; but when +John dared him to come down off the poop—— Well, that’s the sort o’ +stuff the mate’s made of; he hasn’t got the sand of a worm. But look, +sir, I want to tell ye somethin’ more about the Australian packets. +The best and finest voyage I ever had in all me life was in one o’ +those ships, the ‘Loch Rannoch.’” (I love to hear MacFoy roll out his +sonorous Scottish names.) “We had a hundred and eighteen passengers, +most o’ them, of course, in the ’tween-decks, which was fitted up<span class="pagenum" id="Page_386">[Pg 386]</span> wi’ +bunks for ’em. Oh! but we had the fun that passage, though the rules +are strict, just like in the navy, and well they need be. The emigrants +can’t go either forrad or aft o’ certain limits, all lights are out at +eight in the evenin’, no smokin’ after that hour, and in heavy weather +none o’ them are allowed on deck. In the Southern Ocean, runnin’ our +eastin’ down, the hatches were battened for two weeks, and all the +air the people got was thro’ the ventilators. When such emigrants get +to Melbourne they have to report at Government House, and things are +fixed so they can pay their passage-money in instalments. The men are +generally a pretty decent, well-conducted lot; but the women,—oh, +Lord! the women! Some o’ them’s amazons, and that’s a fact. I remember +one that we had on board had the whole ship in a hurrah till one day +Cap’n Skene ordered her aft to talk to her. I mind the time well: the +cap’n, a fat, short, little man in blue and brass buttons wi’ podges +on his shoulders, as vain as a turkey, but a good seaman, was talkin’ +to a couple o’ first-class passengers when this lassie was led aft, +and he turned with a frown to size her up like. ‘Well, mutton-face, +who’re ye lookin’ at?’ says she; and then, without givin’ him time for +a word, she bawled at him, ‘D’ye know what I think o’ you? You’re no +more good than a hoot down a dumb-waiter shaft.’ She said she was no +bloomin’ sailor, and she’d have the run o’ the ship if she liked; and, +will you believe it, they had to put the irons on her, she got that +bad. We used to have great singin’ in the dog-watches. Man, ’twould ha’ +done yer heart good to see us sailors a-sittin’ on the forecastle-head, +thirty of us, and pretty soon we’d start a chanty and keep it up for +ten minutes; and no sooner would we stop than a score of emigrants +amidships would take it up, the women’s and men’s voices soundin’ +fine together, till it was most as<span class="pagenum" id="Page_387">[Pg 387]</span> good as a concert. You’d better +believe it, though, that it takes strict discipline to keep a hundred +and fifty people in order for three months.”</p> + +<p>“See here, MacFoy,” said I, when he had finished. “I want you to answer +me a straight question; is this a hard ship on the men?”</p> + +<p>“Why, no, of course it’s not,” he answered.</p> + +<p>“Well, Mr. Rarx told me that once, but I didn’t know whether to believe +him or not,” said I.</p> + +<p>“I can just tell you, she’s the quietest Yankee ship <i>I</i> ever +sailed in,” observed David; “why, there’s been no blood flyin’ at all +to amount to much. The men can’t make it out; there hasn’t one o’ +them been clouted now goin’ on three weeks. But I can tell you why it +is; it’s all on account o’ you and your wife. The old man won’t let +out before ye, but I’ve often seen him hold on tight to himself and +just swear instead o’ knockin’ the feller end-wise. Yes, Mr. Rarx was +right when he told ye this was an easy ship.” Latitude, 37° 18′ north; +longitude, 139° 50′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">September 12</span></p> + +<p>Hurrah for California! Hurrah for the north wind! Our bowsprit is at +last pointing towards the brown crags of the Golden Gate. At the change +of the watch at midnight we heard the captain sing out, “All hands on +deck; tack ship.” A few moments later came “Put your hellum down”; and +a moment afterward he called out “Hellum’s a-lee”; yet another minute +or two and “Maintop-sail haul” split the air. A dead silence followed +as the men cast off the braces, and then the heavy yards clattered +noisily around, followed by the agreeable sound of ropes running over +patent sheaves (always pronounced shivs); and finally, “Let go and +haul” went ringing forward, the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_388">[Pg 388]</span> head-yards swung round, and in ten +minutes more the ship was braced up on the port tack, heading somewhat +to the northward of east. All continued to go well, and we are now +doing seven knots.</p> + +<p>At 10.30 this <span class="allsmcap">A.M.</span>, as we were watching the mate reeve a new +log-line on the “cherub,” I heard Kelly at the wheel say “Sst, sst,” +and looking where he pointed, lo! a sail appeared well above the +horizon on the lee bow. The glasses resolved her into a three-masted +fore-and-aft schooner on the starboard tack; and we presently perceived +that she was rigged with pole-masts and a spike bowsprit, being the +first vessel of the sort I ever saw. It makes a very serviceable +rig, not so picturesque as fidded topmasts and slender jib-boom, but +powerful and able looking, which count for more in a seaman’s eye than +æsthetic beauty.</p> + +<p>Before long it became apparent that if neither of us shifted the helm +there would be a collision; and as we were on the port tack, we should +be the one to alter our course; but then the other vessel was only +a schooner, so this would never enter the mind of a square-rigger +skipper. Sure enough, although the other had the right of way, she +shifted her wheel and we passed across her bows, not more than a +cable’s length away. She was the “Sequoia,” of San Francisco, three +hundred and twenty-five tons, and was probably bound up to Puget +Sound from a southern Californian port. Observe how hard it is to +make northing as well as easting here at this season, when vessels +are obliged to stand off shore twenty degrees in order to reach up, +and the “Sequoia” hadn’t tacked ship yet to fetch in. I never before +saw a fore-and-aft schooner a thousand miles off shore, though there +are small two-masters that trade between Newfoundland and Spain, and +between Boston and the Bight of Benin.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_389">[Pg 389]</span></p> + +<p>As we passed the “Sequoia,” all hands aboard of her crowded to the side +to see us; and we probably made a splendid picture as we swept by, only +two or three hundred yards away, under all possible canvas. The captain +and mate declared that her name was pronounced “Sequina”; ship-masters +often have the most remarkable pronunciations even for well-known ports +and landmarks, and they cling to them with dogged tenacity.</p> + +<p>Last night we had another new dish for supper,—cream toast. This +sounds odd, I expect, but it was simply delicious; it is true that, +as in the case of the rarebits the other evening, the bread was not +all that could be desired; but by using <i>unsweetened</i> condensed +Swiss cream, thinned a little with water, it proved to be a most savory +dish, though an expensive one for the ship, as an entire can has to be +used each time. In truth, if made thus, it tastes far better than if +fresh milk is used, as the great fault with ordinary milk toast lies in +its flatness and insipidity; but the Swiss cream, being very rich and +perfectly pure, is eminently adapted to this purpose. It sticks in my +mind that this ought to be a hint for housewives.</p> + +<p>Already we have begun to estimate precisely when we will reach port; if +we do it in six days, or by next Saturday, it will mean only a hundred +and fifty miles a day, or six and a half per hour, which we should do +without trouble if we do not fall to leeward of the Farallones.</p> + +<p>Mr. Rarx is still very feeble, and will evidently have to be carried +ashore. Latitude, 38° 10′ north; longitude, 139° 10′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">September 13</span></p> + +<p>A magnificent day, though not quite so much wind as we would like to +have. Up to ten this morning we did passably well, but since then it +has been pretty light, though<span class="pagenum" id="Page_390">[Pg 390]</span> there is a bank of wool-packs rising +in the west, foretelling more wind from that desirable quarter. We +made three degrees of departure, and to our chagrin, not to say +consternation, fifty-eight miles of southing; this latter must be due, +we think, to an error in our previous dead reckoning, as we hadn’t +had the sun for two days, and the currents here are often strong. A +line drawn from yesterday’s alleged noon position to that of to-day +passes directly over the reputed Reed Rocks; but as we are by no means +sure of yesterday’s work, we cannot on that account positively deny +their existence. They were first reported about fifty years ago by one +Reed, an American mariner; but as the British admiralty charts do not +acknowledge the presence of the rocks, and as our own charts have D +marked beneath them, meaning doubtful, it is probable that, if they +ever did exist, they have now disappeared.</p> + +<p>It is worthy of mention that the total cost of running and maintaining +a ship like the “Hosea Higgins” for one year amounts to an average of +twenty-five thousand dollars. In New York alone the bills that Captain +Scruggs had to pay before we went to sea amounted to almost fifteen +thousand dollars, though this was a somewhat excessive amount, owing +to the putting in of a new bowsprit and fore lower mast, which, with +the rigger’s bill, footed up a total of two thousand dollars. Here is +a list of the accounts rendered: Riggers, stores, stevedore, foremast, +blacksmith, wharfage, advance to men, ship-chandler, sail-maker, +tow-boat, pilot, shipwright, tonnage dues, butcher (fresh meat).</p> + +<p>In San Francisco there will be an equally heavy account, as a new +mizzen lower mast will be shipped there; and when the “Higgins” +arrives back at New York she will have to be thoroughly overhauled and +repaired, being of the age of fifteen years. Wooden vessels are classed +A 1 for that period and no longer without a complete renovation,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_391">[Pg 391]</span> and +she is then reclassed; iron vessels are rated A 1 for a much longer +period. The list of firms above enumerated would not be complete, +however, without mentioning the cooper’s bill. This is sometimes quite +large for repairs made to cases, barrels, etc., on account of damage +sustained while loading, at sea, or discharging. Goods must always be +delivered in first-rate condition. Yet, in spite of the heavy running +expenses, this ship averages fifteen and sixteen per cent. profit; +and there is one very large iron four-masted ship, belonging to the +keenest ship-owner in New York, which regularly pays a twenty per +cent. annual dividend. Nearly all American sailing ships pay well; but +the greatest profits that I know of in late years have been made by a +British eleven-knot tramp steamer, whose name I cannot remember. This +vessel for the last four years has paid the owners an average annual +profit of thirty-four per cent. Much of this is, of course, due to the +vessel’s happening to strike the various markets at exactly the right +time, though there must be a good, sharp business head to the concern +to achieve such an astonishing result. It is said, however, that the +majority of British sailing ships are not good money-makers. Latitude, +37° 12′ north; longitude, 136° 15′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">September 14</span></p> + +<p>A magnificent breeze that has driven us along at nearly nine knots has +blown steadily from the north-northeast for twenty-four hours, giving +us an easterly course by compass. But, alas! the point and a half of +variation and another half-point of leeway force us to steer about +east-southeast true. We made a whole degree of southing in consequence, +and are now ninety miles south of ’Frisco Heads. If we have to tack +ship it will be a piece of outrageous luck; and if the ship doesn’t +come up<span class="pagenum" id="Page_392">[Pg 392]</span> three points by noon to-morrow, that’s just what we will have +to do.</p> + +<p>Last Sunday, as I was talking to some of the men forward, Broadhead +spoke of the Yellowstone Park, and he chanced to mention that a +friend of his had spent his honeymoon in that delectable locality, +adding that, of course, everything looked particularly rosy even for +the Yellowstone. Conversation then changed, when all at once I found +the eyes of Jimmie Rumps fixed upon me, and a moment later he said, +wistfully and earnestly, “I should think it must be just grand to go +on a honeymoon.” Rumps, it might be added, would make an excellent +cabin-boy on a yacht; but as bosun of a large ship, it would be +difficult to find one more thoroughly incompetent than he is. There are +at least a dozen of the men before the mast who are far better sailors +than he, and seamanship is a <i>sine qua non</i> in a bosun as well as +in a second mate.</p> + +<p>Another speech of one of the men afforded us a little amusement this +forenoon. As my wife stepped to the binnacle to learn the course, the +old man having just gone below with his sextant, Paddy, the merry, +humorous young Irishman, was steering; but instead of his usual jolly +smile, his face indicated the most extreme dejection. So, to cheer him +up, my wife nodded to him and remarked, “We’ll soon be in, Paddy.” +“Yes, mum, I know,” he replied, “but I got gum-boils now”; to show that +variety had been vouchsafed him in his afflictions, as he has only just +recovered from the worst sea-boils in the ship.</p> + +<p>It may not be very widely known that in the United States there are +several competent women ship-mistresses, as I suppose they ought to +be called. I don’t mean women who understand more or less about the +handling of vessels, but those who are entirely capable and have +received their certificates for steamers from the government. The +first<span class="pagenum" id="Page_393">[Pg 393]</span> woman to pass the examination in this country was a Mrs. George +Miller, of New Orleans, and it was the late Justice Folger, at the time +Secretary of the Treasury, who, after mature deliberation, decided that +a woman could legally, if she passed the severe examination necessary +to command a steam-vessel, assume the responsible position of captain. +Since then several women in the United States have obtained master’s +licenses and have demonstrated their ability to handle steamers; but +the woman-captain of a square-rigger has not yet appeared on the +horizon, though many long-voyage captains’ wives are almost, if not +quite, as capable navigators and seamen as their husbands.</p> + +<p>The British Board of Trade, however, has positively refused to allow a +member of the gentler sex to appear before it for examination. A test +case recently came up when the daughter of an English marquess applied +to that institution for master’s papers. This lady pointed out that she +simply desired to command her own yacht, which she was quite capable of +doing, and did not wish to have anything to do with any other vessel; +but the Board of Trade’s answer to her application was that it would +not permit a woman to be examined for a master’s certificate, as the +word master implicitly specified that men alone were eligible. Shortly +afterward the marquess’s daughter married an Irish merchant captain, +and at the present time is no doubt ably assisting her husband in +the navigation of the splendid ship which he has the good fortune to +command. Latitude, 36° 21′ north; longitude, 132° 30′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">September 15</span></p> + +<p>This is the second of my wife’s birthdays that we have passed at +sea, as three years ago we celebrated one in the “Mandalore” in +37° south, 16° east; and to commemorate this occasion we have had +very strong northerly winds, with<span class="pagenum" id="Page_394">[Pg 394]</span> heavy puffs, a clear sky, and a +rough but magnificent sea, with the ship bounding through it under +the maintop-gallant-sail, bursting the spray high up to windward in +drenching showers as she shoulders her way through the great creaming +billows. How superb and proud they look, their snow-white, downy crests +standing pompously forth against the azure sky, with intervening +valleys of that wonderful blue which imparts such a fascination to the +scene! We love nothing better than to pick out a particularly tall sea +when it is still a quarter of a mile away on the bow. On it comes, as +resistless as time; now hidden as the ship drops into a hollow, now +soaring above its fellows as some grand, snowy peak towers over its +pine-clad neighbors. Nearer and yet nearer it approaches, challenging +combat as it comes, the vessel half advancing to meet it. And now it +is right alongside, and hangs menacingly thirty feet above the ship, +and the spray scattered from its glistening summit flies overhead in a +swirling cloud, and a rainbow spans for an instant the streaming decks. +It seems impossible that the vessel can clear the swift rush of the +great billow; but just as it gathers itself for the assault the ship, +with a heavy lurch to leeward, presents a high, copper-sheathed wall to +the seething flood, and before you know it you have passed the crest of +the huge wave and are sliding smoothly and noiselessly into the quiet +valley beyond.</p> + +<p>We have just cause for rejoicing, too, for the ship has come up two +whole points since midnight, and we are now steering east-northeast by +compass; two more points to the northward and we can fetch to windward +of the Farallones. The captain seems wonderfully positive that we will +fetch in all right, and when he expresses himself so surely, which he +seldom does, we always feel pretty certain of the chances being in our +favor.</p> + +<p>I haven’t mentioned Mr. Rarx for some time. He has<span class="pagenum" id="Page_395">[Pg 395]</span> not been doing at +all well, eats hardly six ounces of food a day, and he has withered +away to a wraith of his former self; an idea of this may be gained +from the captain’s estimate that he has lost at least forty pounds. +The impression grows that Louis will be cleared in court, this opinion +being held even by the skipper, for the men say that the second mate +knocked Karl down with a maul besides the block, and there are three +others who can bring damaging evidence against Mr. Rarx. But I am very +much afraid that the mellifluous voices of the crimps when they swarm +aboard in San Francisco harbor will exercise a somewhat different +influence upon their opinions. I should like to see a ship-master with +the courage to prevent the entrance of these crimps into his vessel; +but if he did so and had them all kicked over the side into the harbor, +as they ought to be, what a time this ship-master would have getting a +crew together when he was next ready for sea! For not a boarding-master +in the city would let him have a man.</p> + +<p>If sailors would only hold together when they get ashore and testify +against the bad treatment that they get at sea, nine-tenths of the +villains who officer our deep-water-men would now be contemplating +existence behind grated windows. If we had any doubts as to this +particular ship’s being worse in its treatment of the men than the +average Yankee, they were further dispelled by a remark of Jack +Nickalls, an unobtrusive little sailor, and a good one: “This ship’s a +peach compared to them wot I’ve been in.” Louis is fairly cheerful and +conducts himself remarkably well. Latitude 36° 1′ north; longitude, +128° 20′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">September 16</span></p> + +<p>To our very great astonishment, the wind increased very rapidly +yesterday afternoon, and by three o’clock it was<span class="pagenum" id="Page_396">[Pg 396]</span> blowing a strong +gale from the northward, with a cloudless sky. Several exciting +incidents marked the day, the first of which occurred at the above +hour. I had just gone on deck when suddenly there was a most tremendous +clatter forward, and in another second down fell the big maintop-mast +stay-sail, hanging outboard so as to just touch the water, as, of +course, it was blown to leeward by the gale. From beyond the head, +which was that part that hung down, extended about six feet of the +heavy iron wire stay which had parted, and there instantly began the +most terrible slatting that I have ever heard or seen. It was nothing +short of fearful. There was a heavy sea running, and as the ship would +lay far over every few moments the wind would gather up the sail, +blow it out horizontally to leeward, and then jerk it back and forth, +up and down, seemingly in every direction at the same instant, with +appalling fury, the iron wire dashing now against the main-backstays, +now against the bulwarks, now full into the bunt of the main-sail, with +a force that was awful and made you hold your breath as the weapon was +flung against the backstays with the crack of a pistol. I have seen +slatting before when the gear of large racing yachts carried away; but +it was not to be spoken of in the same breath with that of to-day. It +was as if the power of the universe was concentrated in the twisting, +bounding, whirling stay-sail; and the sailors stood aghast, for it was +certain death to approach.</p> + +<p>The captain was asleep when the stay parted, but he was on deck in +a few seconds, and instantly ordered the helm hard up, so as to get +the ship before the wind and prevent further destruction, for the +main-rigging couldn’t have stood the thrashing much longer. Slowly +the ship paid off, but five minutes passed until she was running free +before the big, smoking seas, for we had started nothing, but had +simply put the helm up. Meanwhile the slashing<span class="pagenum" id="Page_397">[Pg 397]</span> continued, and at last +the wire burst through the main-sail and made a gaping rent in the +after-leech. How the whole lee side of the sail escaped is marvellous; +but when we were dead before the wind four hands simultaneously seized +the heaving sail, and by heroic work finally got it muzzled after +fifteen minutes of most courageous efforts.</p> + +<p>No sooner was it secured and the ship on her course again than the +old man sung out, “Clew up the main-t’-ga’nt-s’l.” There was a rush +to the clew-lines and halliards; but somebody slacked away something +too quickly for the zephyr that was whispering aloft, for there came a +crackling report, and the top-gallant-sail at once was transformed into +canvas pennants. A varied assortment of profanity tinged the atmosphere +for quite half an hour, as a new sail had to be bent, and no one who +has not seen a sail shifted in a gale of wind can form any true idea of +the hard labor entailed in the process. So, leaving the uninitiated to +picture it as well as he can, I must go on to describe something that +occurred which more nearly concerned ourselves.</p> + +<p>My wife and I were in our room a few minutes later discussing the +stay-sail business, when, without warning, there came a very great +lurch, and then the booming of mighty waters smote our ears as a +whooping sea fell thundering directly on the poop. For a moment we were +speechless as the water rushed in our windows, in spite of this being +the lee side, drenching every object in the room; but we were called to +our senses mighty suddenly by the volume of water that came cascading +down the companion-way and gushing inches deep into our room. But, +alas! what could we do? Such a thing happens in a second, and by the +time that we had slammed the door and shutters there was no more water +to come in and the damage was wrought. Personally we did not suffer +extensively, but<span class="pagenum" id="Page_398">[Pg 398]</span> the after-cabin was a rare sight. The skipper’s room +was on the weather-side, and as the ship heeled far over to the sea, +everything movable shot out into the cabin, and when we first saw it +books, magazines, balls of twine, slippers, shoes, ocean directories, +charts, dividers, rulers, cigars, and an incredible number of old San +Franciscan newspapers, every letter of which we have read, including +the advertisements, were washing about in half a foot of brine. An +idea of the volume of water may be gained when it is said that the +steward and Sammie were an hour and a half in baling it out with +buckets. Fortunately, the weather windows were protected by the solid +wooden shutters which had just been closed; but the companion door had +been left open, and this did nearly all the damage. Not even when the +forward skylight was stove off the river Plate was there so much water +below, and it was really an alarming thing to see so much ocean flowing +down the companion-stairs.</p> + +<p>But all these little inconveniences were as nothing when compared with +the fact that the gale delayed us seriously and that the sea kept +knocking us off, though the wind was steady at north-northwest; so +that, in spite of it, we did not make good a better course than east +by north and went through the water very slowly, as we had to hold her +well up to make even one point of northing.</p> + +<p>By ten this <span class="allsmcap">A.M.</span>, however, the wind had so moderated that +the top-gallant-sails were set, but we began then to break off to the +southward of east, and at one o’clock we wore ship and are now on the +starboard tack, heading up northwest by north. The point to be avoided +at all hazards is not to fall off to the southward any more; never mind +going back into the Pacific a little if you can make some northing. Our +destination is distant only a hundred and fifty miles, and the captain +has until Saturday to save his<span class="pagenum" id="Page_399">[Pg 399]</span> record of one hundred and thirty days. +Latitude, 36° 28′ north; longitude, 125° 30′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">September 17</span></p> + +<p>Instead of being now within sight of the coast, lo! we are becalmed +within twenty miles of where we were at noon yesterday. It is difficult +to imagine anything more exasperating than to lie idly upon the surface +of a glassy ocean, only a little more than a hundred miles from the +port for which you have been striving for four months. I wouldn’t care +if the voyage were to be several weeks longer, but it is trying for all +hands to thus lie becalmed so near the haven. Off the Hooghly, we were +similarly tortured with light winds for several days.</p> + +<p>When we went on deck this morning the weather was such that we +might well have conceived ourselves down between the Trades, for we +apparently floated in oil, and the big squares of canvas depended in +writhing folds from the lofty yards. Not even the smallest clouds +spattered the blue heavens, but a thin haze covered the sea and rose +above the horizon some fifteen degrees or so, a semi-transparent +curtain of a deep orange, beautiful to behold, but of ill omen, as it +was highly improbable that anything worthy the name of breeze would +come from anywhere with such conditions.</p> + +<p>Astern, among the dark, spiral water-funnels floated half a dozen +gunies, and we thought that perhaps we could capture one; therefore +the skipper rigged a small hook baited with bacon-rind to a thin line +and dropped it overboard. In a few minutes one took the bait; and, +giving the line a jerk, he hooked the creature in the upper part of the +bill and hauled him through the water and up over the stern. This bird +made but little resistance, and formed a strong contrast to the fierce +struggles of an albatross under<span class="pagenum" id="Page_400">[Pg 400]</span> similar conditions. When finally +deposited upon the deck, he seemed to be about the size of a swan as to +body, but his wings were very long, the alar extent being eight feet, +or only three or four feet less than an average albatross. Like the +latter, a guny can inflict a very severe wound with his bill, and it is +necessary to have a care for your calves as you pass by. We endeavored +to take some photographs of the big bird, but he would insist upon +continual motion, and finally the wretched beast cast up the contents +of his stomach on the deck, after the manner of all sea-fowl. Then the +captain brought up the Maltese cat, who entertains a very lofty opinion +of itself and who is in the habit of valiantly putting the chickens to +flight; he was apparently stunned, though, when confronted with the +great bird, and when the latter opened a beak in which the whole of +Tommie’s head might have rested, his tail thickened and he sped him +away. As it was useless then to keep the guny any longer on board, the +skipper grasped him dexterously by the tip of one wing and threw him +over the side; whereupon catching himself before he touched the water, +he flew off with a joyous scream to rejoin his comrades, and no doubt +relate to them his wonderful adventures. Latitude, 36° 35′ north; +longitude, 125° 50′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">September 18</span></p> + +<p>Becalmed, sixty-five miles from the Farallones! It is a dismal fact +that although we had a light, fair wind all last night, it let go at +nine this morning, and since then we have been weltering in a light +swell from the northward, with the sea at times like blue ice. Such +a dead calm was it that my wife and I played cards the greater part +of the morning on deck. At 7 <span class="allsmcap">A.M.</span> the haze that shrouded the +sea commenced to melt under the hot sun, and two ships were<span class="pagenum" id="Page_401">[Pg 401]</span> disclosed +to our vision, one to port, the other to starboard. The former was a +three-master of about two thousand tons, while the other was a very +large, full-rigged, four-masted ship—that is, square-rigged on all the +masts—of fully twenty-eight hundred tons. Both were metal vessels, and +made a fine picture as they gracefully topped the easy swell. They were +bound to the southward, and therefore have all their troubles before +them.</p> + +<p>The poor old man has broken his record, and we feel very sorry for +him; and, indeed, it is a very fine thing for a captain to be able to +say that never, upon any voyage, in any part of the world, has he been +more than one hundred and thirty days at sea. He takes this voyage very +philosophically, which is a remarkable fact, and says that no matter +how fine a man’s record may be, it’s only necessary to keep on and +it will at last be broken. I divided up some articles of old clothes +among the men this afternoon, and their pleasure as they drew lots +for the various pieces, which they made no attempt to conceal, was +delightful to see. We, ourselves, are all packed up ready to go ashore +whenever the wind will allow us; it is very satisfactory to get this +done, for we always travel with an altogether unnecessary quantity of +impedimenta, and it is a matter of considerable skill to compress all +the things into two or three trunks.</p> + +<p>While we were looking at the smaller of those two ships this morning +the captain said that she looked like the British ship “Eurydice,” +the present holder of the record passage across the North Pacific, +she having made the voyage from Yokohama to Port Townsend in the +wonderfully fast time of nineteen days. With this voyage compare those +of two other British square-riggers, the “Clan Macfarlane” and the +“Matterhorn”; neither is a slow ship, yet the former was one hundred +and one days sailing from<span class="pagenum" id="Page_402">[Pg 402]</span> Hong-Kong to San Francisco, and the latter +one hundred and fourteen between the same ports.</p> + +<p>The captain is beginning to wonder how difficult it is going to be for +him to get a crew in ’Frisco when he is ready for sea again; he is +worrying a good deal over it, for when we sailed from New York sailors +were so scarce in San Francisco that the big ships “Forfarshire” and +“Kensington” went to sea with crews half of which were ranch hands, who +had been rounded up by the crimps. Latitude, 37° 11′ north; longitude, +124° 12′ west.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">September 19</span></p> + +<p>At half-past six this morning there was a great rapping and thumping +on our door, and Captain Scruggs cried, “If you want to see the +Faralleeones you’d better come on deck.” Ten minutes later we emerged +from the companion-way, but at first could see nothing at all for +a chilly fog that lay upon the water, which had, during the night, +changed to the muddy green of soundings. By dint of perseverance, +though, we saw a large, dark mass loom gradually up until we could +plainly discern the brown, sterile cones of the Farallones, which lie +about twenty-five miles west of San Francisco Heads. Many persons have +been puzzled to know why it is that the majority of the Pacific coast +population pronounce the word as though it was spelled Fa-ra-lee-owns. +The explanation of it seems to me to be a corruption of the Spanish +pronunciation Fa-ralyo-nes, as, of course, the double l in that +language has the sound of y. The same can be said of Mollendo, an +important Peruvian port in 17° south; for Californians who are not +especially erudite call the place Mol-ly-en-do, from the Spanish +Mol-yen-do. It will be perceived how readily careless persons could +fall into the way of putting an extra syllable in names which contain +the double l, from hearing<span class="pagenum" id="Page_403">[Pg 403]</span> Mexicans and South Americans pronounce the +words, which, of course, they do correctly.</p> + +<p>As we had packed all of our valises, etc., the night before, there was +nothing for us to do but to anticipate with pleasurable excitement +the entrance into the Golden Gate, for the captain assured us that by +eleven o’clock there wouldn’t be a vestige of fog left; this being a +peculiarity of the coast climate. Sure enough, at ten the mists began +to disperse and a bright glare overhead indicated an impending flood of +sunshine.</p> + +<p>At this moment we heard several sharp whistles ahead, and a tow-boat +passed close to us in another minute, and then rounding to, ranged up +alongside. How odd a sensation it is to see a new face again after +an absence of four months from the retreats of men! Day after day, +week after week, we have watched Mr. Goggins relieve Mr. Rarx, and +Broadhead relieve Paddy, so steadily that we almost forgot that there +was any one else in existence; and when we perceived the captain of +the tug-boat standing in the pilot-house in a glistening “biled” shirt +and store clothes and a polish on his brown shoes that quite dazzled +us, we gazed upon him fascinated, for he was the biggest dude we had +seen in nineteen weeks. And how uncouth the ship’s company looked +when contrasted with even the tow-boat’s crew! However, we were soon +brought to from our reveries by a large bundle of newspapers that the +tug’s skipper hove on board; and who can depict the joy of that hour, +during which we pored over the journals, marvelling at the commonplace +allusions to momentous events which had been almost forgotten by the +daily reader?</p> + +<p>Presently we passed two ships bound up to Puget Sound,—the “Dashing +Wave” and the “Yosemite” (old Neilsen, a Swede, said he used to +sail in the “Jo-se-might”),—and then, the fog lifting suddenly and +completely, we found<span class="pagenum" id="Page_404">[Pg 404]</span> ourselves only two miles from the Heads. “Get +out an old ensign,” said the skipper to the mate, “and put it in the +riggin’, union down.” “Hall right, sir,” answered that individual with +much satisfaction, and in a few minutes an old torn flag, reversed, +fluttered in the starboard mizzen-shrouds. It was of ominous meaning, +for to a sailor it signified “police assistance wanted on board.” And +then we remembered the Frenchman below, and wondered what his thoughts +and anticipations must be, for of course he knew that a tow-boat had +our line.</p> + +<p>It was a quarter to noon when we entered the Golden Gate under a +cloudless sky and caught our first glimpse of the world-famed harbor. A +single word describes it,—magnificent. The entrance itself, where the +ship moves on between wild, rugged hills that tower sheer out of the +sea, is marked with an individual grandeur, and serves to prepare one +for the splendid haven within; and when the ship finally glides beyond +a certain headland and creeps slowly along in a perfect maze of great +wooden and steel sailing ships, with the immense expanse of shining +water ahead, the wonderful, perpendicular streets on the starboard +hand, and the endless chain of lofty hills on the other, a sensation of +pride tingles through you when you think that it is your “ain countrie” +that boasts this great, matchless harbor.</p> + +<p>Long before the anchorage was reached a handsome white steamer was seen +approaching us, with a vertically striped flag in the stern. It was the +revenue cutter; and, steaming alongside, four men at once stepped on +board. The first was the customs inspector, and the others, a deputy +United States marshal and two policemen. It was a dramatic scene. All +of our men were huddled around the galley, with anxious looks toward +the officers of the law, who immediately went into the cabin and held +a long conversation in low tones with the captain. Then the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_405">[Pg 405]</span> deputy +marshal stepped into the second mate’s room and talked with him five +minutes in whispers, a blue-coat posting himself at each cabin door. +A rattling of keys was heard in another moment, and then old Goggins, +somewhat awed, but as pompous and ridiculous as a turkey, stumped +down into the lazarette, and with much unnecessary clanking of chains +Louis issued forth into daylight. He was as pale as ashes, for a sort +of prison pallor was upon his usually dark cheeks, and he seemed on +the point of breaking down when he saw the police. Then he looked +all around imploringly, first at his shipmates near the galley, then +at Captain Scruggs, and finally he caught sight of us, when he cast +upon us a look so sad and beseeching that I will remember forever the +sorrowful look in his eyes. Only for an instant did he stop, though; +the officers stepped forward at a nod from the deputy, grasped the +Frenchman, still manacled, by the collar, marched him quickly over to +the port side, hustled him aboard the revenue boat, and in another +instant Louis Jacquin, able seaman, of Dunquerque, disappeared from +view and was on his way to show cause for an assault on the high seas +upon Thomas Rarx, second mate of the clipper “Hosea Higgins.”</p> + +<p>When the anchor had touched the bottom we stood by for the crimps. +Even before we were aware of it the evil creatures began to swarm on +board like a flock of sinister vultures, and without ceremony they +fell upon their prey. They plied the men from bottles whose black +nozzles protruded from their coat-pockets; and in a few minutes each +had persuaded his man to go with him when they should get ashore. +Poor fellows, once more in the clutches of the vampires, who, while +not actually fostered by the government, yet are allowed to ply their +abominable and iniquitous trade full in the face of the law. And I +repeat, <i>the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_406">[Pg 406]</span> allotment or advance system of wages that now prevails, +and which is the basis upon which the whole scheme of crimping +is founded, must be abolished</i>. It is the duty of the Federal +government to see to it that this is done.</p> + +<p>At fifteen minutes past twelve there was a loud order from the captain, +“Let go.” Then came the heavy, crushing splash, the fierce rush of +the cable, the big four-thousand-pound anchor gripped the mud of San +Francisco Bay, and our long voyage was a thing of the past. How many +exciting moments we had had in those one hundred and thirty-one days! +What varied phases of the ocean we had witnessed in the seventeen +thousand four hundred miles we had sailed, from the snowy squalls and +hissing seas of Cape Horn to the quiet breezes and calm surface of the +equatorial seas!</p> + +<p>Little time was given us for reflection, though, for the tug-boat +skipper had agreed to put us ashore at the foot of Market Street, if +we would “look alive.” So we threw our valises and shawl-straps to +a deck-hand on the tug, shook Captain Scruggs’ hardy fist, and then +turned to do the same with Mr. Goggins; but as this individual was +invisible at the time, no doubt below in the fore-peak, we were obliged +to forego that pleasure. And now there ensued a remarkable scene: as +we went over the side we noticed that all the sailors were on the +mainyard, unbending the sail, and as we stepped aboard the tow-boat I +shouted, “Good-by, boys! Good luck to you all!” There was a moment’s +silence, and then Broadhead, who was at the starboard yard-arm just +over our heads, sung out, “Now, fellows, three times three for them”; +and at once there broke out the most vociferous and lusty cheering +that ever came from eighteen throats. The men seemed to get worked up +as they shouted, and at last MacFoy and a dozen others fairly yelled +and threw their<span class="pagenum" id="Page_407">[Pg 407]</span> caps on deck and waved their arms like madmen, so +that their voices went ringing peal on peal over the broad harbor, +bringing to the rail the officers and crews of the big Scotch ships +“Aberfoyle,” “County of Linlithgow” and “Blairgowrie,” which lay hard +by, to know what all this cheering meant on a Yankee just in from sea. +It was a moment to bring a tear to your eye; and neither my wife nor +I can ever forget these honest, big-hearted sailors as they appeared +on that yard, shouting themselves hoarse. Why? Simply because we had +bade them good-morning and good-night during the voyage and had shown +that we understood and appreciated their hard and thankless labors. +If ship-masters would realize that a single kind word or even look +often exerts more influence over a crew than oaths and blows, what +a difference there would be in the handling and navigating of our +long-voyage sailing ships!</p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_409">[Pg 409]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="APPENDIX">APPENDIX</h2> +</div> + + +<p>A few days after our arrival at San Francisco, Louis Jacquin was +brought for trial at that port before the United States Commissioner. +He made an excellent defence; so good, indeed, that after due +consideration of both sides of the case, the commissioner was compelled +to discharge him, and Louis walked forth a free man. This was a just +and most satisfactory termination of the matter, though I would have +liked to see Rarx properly punished for his treatment of Karl <i>et +al.</i> In truth, Karl, Brün and Pettersen did prefer charges against +both mates, who were held for trial; but when the case came up no +witnesses appeared against them, for the very good reason that the +three men were shanghaied aboard a New York bound ship by the boarding +masters, thus pursuing the usual course in such matters. Rarx recovered +in a short time, and no doubt is at this moment stamping on some poor +fellow whom he has beaten down with the ever-present belaying-pin.</p> + +<p>While this book was in press, there arrived at San Francisco one of our +most widely known Cape-Horners. The men related stories of unusually +shocking cruelties on the part of the captain as well as the officers, +and the second mate was held in five hundred dollars bonds. Two of +the sailors testified, on separate occasions, to this incident: While +wearing off the Horn one day, the second mate struck a sailor down with +a capstan-bar and was kicking him heavily in the head, when the mate +yelled from the poop, “That’s right, kick the life out of him”; to +which the second mate replied, “I would kill him if we were only bound +to Hong-Kong.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_410">[Pg 410]</span></p> + +<p>Is this the way our consuls protect the lives of men under the flag? +What is the matter with our Eastern consular service that men may be +killed on our ships (as they have been), and the murderers go free upon +landing at Chinese and Japanese ports? A delightful travesty, indeed, +upon our exalted civilization.</p> + + +<p class="center">THE END.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<div class="transnote"> +<p class="center"><b>Transcriber’s Notes</b></p> + +<p>Perceived typographical errors have been silently corrected.</p> + +<p>Colloquial spelling in dialog has been retained as in the original.</p> + +<p>Variations in use of hyphenation, compound words and quotation marks +have been preserved.</p> + +<p>Illustrations have been moved nearer to the text to which they refer.</p> +</div></div> + + +<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75710 ***</div> +</body> +</html> + diff --git a/75710-h/images/cover.jpg b/75710-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..126edc3 --- /dev/null +++ b/75710-h/images/cover.jpg diff --git a/75710-h/images/i_004.jpg b/75710-h/images/i_004.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0324f5f --- /dev/null +++ b/75710-h/images/i_004.jpg diff --git a/75710-h/images/i_005.jpg b/75710-h/images/i_005.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..fbec194 --- /dev/null +++ b/75710-h/images/i_005.jpg diff --git a/75710-h/images/i_012b.jpg b/75710-h/images/i_012b.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4896fab --- /dev/null +++ b/75710-h/images/i_012b.jpg diff --git a/75710-h/images/i_018a.jpg b/75710-h/images/i_018a.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4b537a4 --- /dev/null +++ b/75710-h/images/i_018a.jpg diff --git a/75710-h/images/i_028a.jpg b/75710-h/images/i_028a.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b4f0556 --- /dev/null +++ b/75710-h/images/i_028a.jpg diff --git a/75710-h/images/i_048a.jpg b/75710-h/images/i_048a.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..36ec0d0 --- /dev/null +++ b/75710-h/images/i_048a.jpg diff --git a/75710-h/images/i_052a.jpg b/75710-h/images/i_052a.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..956794e --- /dev/null +++ b/75710-h/images/i_052a.jpg diff --git a/75710-h/images/i_084a.jpg b/75710-h/images/i_084a.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4ac59db --- /dev/null +++ b/75710-h/images/i_084a.jpg diff --git a/75710-h/images/i_104a.jpg b/75710-h/images/i_104a.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..23f14a4 --- /dev/null +++ b/75710-h/images/i_104a.jpg diff --git a/75710-h/images/i_126a.jpg b/75710-h/images/i_126a.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d30e1b7 --- /dev/null +++ b/75710-h/images/i_126a.jpg diff --git a/75710-h/images/i_196.jpg b/75710-h/images/i_196.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..92a9bd2 --- /dev/null +++ b/75710-h/images/i_196.jpg diff --git a/75710-h/images/i_212a.jpg b/75710-h/images/i_212a.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..7196efe --- /dev/null +++ b/75710-h/images/i_212a.jpg diff --git a/75710-h/images/i_302a.jpg b/75710-h/images/i_302a.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..045cc13 --- /dev/null +++ b/75710-h/images/i_302a.jpg diff --git a/75710-h/images/i_332a.jpg b/75710-h/images/i_332a.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a581c41 --- /dev/null +++ b/75710-h/images/i_332a.jpg diff --git a/75710-h/images/i_358a.jpg b/75710-h/images/i_358a.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d3dc3f2 --- /dev/null +++ b/75710-h/images/i_358a.jpg diff --git a/75710-h/images/i_386a.jpg b/75710-h/images/i_386a.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4bab598 --- /dev/null +++ b/75710-h/images/i_386a.jpg diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b5dba15 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This book, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. 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