 CHAPTER 34 The same day I met with one of those narrow escapes which are so often happening in a sailor's life. I had been aloft nearly all the afternoon at work, standing for as much as an hour on the four-top gallant yard, which was hoisted up and hung only by the tie. When having got through my work, I balled up my yarns, took my serving board in my hand, laid hold deliberately of the top gallant rigging, took one foot from the yard, and was just lifting the other when the tie parted and down the yard fell. I was safe by my hold upon the rigging, but it made my heart beat quick. Had the tie parted one instant sooner, or had I stood an instant longer on the yard, I should inevitably have been thrown violently from the height of ninety or a hundred feet overboard, or what is worse, upon the deck. However, a missus is as good as a mile, a sane which sailors very often have occasion to use. An escape is always a joke on board ship. A man would be ridiculed who should make a serious matter of it. A sailor knows too well that his life hangs upon a thread, too wish to be often reminded of it. So if a man has an escape he keeps it to himself, or makes a joke of it. I have often known a man's life to be saved by an instant of time, whereby the mirror's chance, the swinging of a rope, and no notice taken of it. One of our boys off Cape Horn, reefing topsoils on a dark night, when there were no boats to be lowered away, and where, if a man fell overboard he must be left behind, lost his hold of the reef-point, slipped from the foot-rope, and would have been in the water in a moment, when the man who was next to him on the yard, French John, caught him by the collar of his jacket and hauled him up upon the yard. Hold on another time, you young monkey, and be damned to you! And that was all that was heard about it. Sunday, August 7th, latitude, twenty-five degrees, fifty-nine minutes south, longitude, twenty-seven degrees west. Spoke the English bark Mary Catherine, from Bahia, bound to Cochata. This was the first sail we had fallen in with, and the first time we had seen a human form, or heard the human voice, except of our own number, for nearly a hundred days. The very yo-ho-ing of the sailors at the ropes sounded sociably upon the ear. She was an old, damaged-looking craft, with a high poop and topgallant folk-soul, and sawed-off square, stem and stern, like a true English teawagon, and with a run like a sugar-box. She had stunning souls out aloe and aloft, with a light but steady breeze, and her captain said he could not get more than four knots out of her, and thought he should have a long passage. We were going six on an easy bow-lan. The next day, about three p.m., passed a large corvette-built ship, close upon the wind, with royals and skisels set for an aft, under English colors. She was standing south by east, probably bound round Cape Horn. She had men in her tops and black mass-heads, heavily sparred, with sails cut to a tee, and other marks of a man of war. She sailed well and presented a fine appearance, the proud, futile-looking banner of St. George, the cross in the blood-red field, waving from the mizzen. We probably were nearly as fine as sight, with our studying-souls spread far out beyond the ship on either side, and rising in a pyramid to royal studying-souls and skisels, bearing the hull in canvas and looking like what the wailmen on the banks under their stump-top gallant mast call a Cape Horn-er under a cloud of sail. Friday, August 12th. At daylight made the island of Trinidad, situated in latitude twenty degrees, twenty-eight minutes south, longitude twenty-nine degrees, eight minutes west. At twelve a.m. it bore northwest one-half north, distant twenty-seven miles. It was a beautiful day. The sea hardly ruffled by the light-trades, and the island looking like a small blue mound rising from a field of glass. Such a fair and peaceful-looking spot is said to have been, for a long time, the resort of a band of pirates who ravaged the tropical seas. Thursday, August 18th. At three p.m. made the island of Fernando Narroña, lying in latitude three degrees, fifty-five minutes south, longitude thirty-two degrees, fifty-five minutes west. And between twelve o'clock on Friday night and one o'clock Saturday morning, crossed the equator for the fourth time since leaving Boston, in longitude thirty-five degrees west, having been twenty-seven days from Staten Island, a distance by the course we had made of more than four thousand miles. We were now to the northward of the line, and every day added to our latitude. The Magellan clouds, the last sign of south latitude, had long been sunk, and the north star, the Great Bear, and the familiar signs of northern latitudes were rising in the heavens. Next to seeing land there is no sight which makes one realize more that he is drawing near home than to see the same heavens under which he was born, shining at night over his head. The weather was extremely hot, with the usual tropical alternations of a scorching sun and squalls of rain, yet not a word was said in complaint of the heat, for we all remembered that only three or four weeks before we would have given our all to be where we were now. We had a plenty of water, too, which we caught by spreading an awning, with shot thrown in to make hollows. These rain squalls came up in the manner usual between the tropics, a clear sky, burning, vertical sun, work going lazily on, men about decks with only duck trousers checked shirts and straw hats, the ship moving lazily through the water, the man at the helm resting against the wheel, with his hat down over his eyes. The captain below taking an afternoon nap, the passenger leaning over the tafferel watching a dolphin following slowly in our wake, the sailmaker mending an old topsoil on the lee side of the quarter deck, the carpenter working at his bench in the waist, the boys making sinnet, the spun yarn winch whizzing round and round, the men walking slowly for an aft with the yarns. A cloud rises to winter looking a little black, the sky cells are brailed down, the captain puts his head out of the companion way, looks at the cloud, comes up and begins to walk the deck, the cloud spreads and comes on, the tub of yarns, the sail and other matters are thrown below, and the skylight and booby hatch put on, and the slide drawn over the folk sole. Stand by the royal hall yards, and the man at the wheel keeps a good weather helm so it's not to be taken aback. The squall strikes her, if it is light the royal yards are clued down and the ship keeps on her way, but if the squall takes strong hold the royals are clued up for an aft, light hands lay aloft and furl them, topgallant yards are clued down, flying jib hauled down and the ship kept off before, the man at the helm laying out his strength to heave the wheel up to wintered, at the same time a drenching rain which soaks one through in an instant. Yet no one puts on a jacket or cap, for if it is only warm a sailor does not mind a ducking, and the sun will soon be out again. As soon as the force of the squall has passed, though to a common eye the ship would seem to be in the midst of it. Keep up her course again. Keep her up, sir. Answer. Note. A man at the wheel is required to repeat every order given to him. A simple aye-aye sir is not enough there. Hoist away the topgallant yards, run up the flying jib, lay aloft you boys and loose the royals. And all sail is on her again before she is fairly out of the squall, and she is going on in her course. The sun comes out once more, hotter than ever, dries up the decks and the sailors' clothes. The hatches are taken off, the sail got up and spread on the quarter deck, spun yarn winch set a whirring again, rigging coiled up, captain goes below, and every sign of an interruption disappears. These scenes, with occasional dead calms lasting for hours and sometimes for days, are fair specimens of the Atlantic tropics. The nights were fine, and as we had all hands all day, the watch were allowed to sleep on deck at night, except the man at the wheel, and one lookout on the foxel. This was not so much expressly allowed as winked at. We could do it if we did not ask leave. If the lookout was caught napping, the whole watch was kept awake. We made the most of this permission, and stowed ourselves away upon the rigging under the weather rail, on the spars, under the windless, and in all snug corners, and frequently slept out the watch, unless we had a wheel or a lookout. And we were glad enough to give this rest, for under the all hand system. Out of every other thirty-six hours we only had four below, and even an hour's sleep was a gain not to be neglected. One would have thought so to have seen our watch some nights, sleeping through a heavy rain. And often have we come on deck, and finding a dead calm in a light, steady rain, and determined not to lose our sleep, have laid a coil of rigging down so as to keep us out of the water which was washing about decks, and stowed ourselves away upon it, covering a jacket over us, and slept as soundly as a Dutchman between two feather beds. For a week or ten days after crossing the line, we had the usual variety of calms, squalls, headwinds, and fair winds, at one time braced sharp upon the wind, with a taut bowline, and in an hour after slipping quietly along, with a light breeze over the taffrel, and studying souls set out on both sides, until we fell in with the northeast trade winds, which we did on the afternoon of Sunday, August twenty-eighth, in latitude twelve degrees north. The trade wind clouds had been in sight for a day or two previously, and we expected to take the trades every hour. The light southerly breeze, which had been breathing languidly during the first part of the day, died away towards noon, and in its place came puffs from the northeast, which caused us to take our studying souls and brace up, and in a couple of hours more, we were bowling gloriously along, dashing the spray far ahead into Lourdes, with the cool, steady northeast trades freshening up the sea, and giving us as much as we could carry our royals, too. These winds blew strongly and steady, keeping us generally upon a bowline. As our course was about north-northwest, and sometimes, as they veered a little to the eastward, giving us a chance at a main top-gallant studying soul, and sending us well to the northward, until Sunday, September fourth, when they left us in latitude twenty-two degrees north and longitude fifty-one degrees west, directly under the Tropic of Cancer. For several days we lay humbugging about in the hoarse latitudes, with all sorts of winds and weather, and occasionally, as we were in the latitude of the West Indies, a thunderstorm. It was hurricane month, too, and we were just in the track of the tremendous hurricane of 1830, which swept the north Atlantic, destroying almost everything before it. The first night after the trade winds left us, while we were in the latitude of the Island of Cuba, we had a specimen of a true tropical thunderstorm. A light breeze had been blowing from aft during the first part of the night, which gradually died away, and before midnight it was dead calm, and a heavy black cloud had shrouded the whole sky. When our watch came on deck at twelve o'clock, it was as black as Irribus. The studying souls were all taken in, and the royals furled, not a breath was stirring, the sails hung heavy and motionless from the yards, and the stillness and the darkness, which was almost palpable, were truly appalling. Not a word was spoken, but everyone stood as though waiting for something to happen. In a few minutes the mate came forward, and in a low tone, which was almost a whisper, told us to haul down the jib. The four and misty top gallant sails were taken in in the same silent manner, and we lay motionless upon the water, with an uneasy expectation, which, from the long suspense, became actually painful. We could hear the captain walking the deck, but it was too dark to see anything more than one's hand before the face. Then the mate came forward again and gave an order, in a low tone, to clue up the main top gallant sail, and so infectious were the awe and silence, that the cluelands and butlins were hauled up without any singing at the ropes. An English lad and myself went up to furl it, and we had just got the bunt up. When the mate called out to us something, we did not hear what, but supposing it to be an order to bear a hand, we hurried and made all fast and came down, filling our way among the rigging. When we got down we found all hands looking aloft, and there, directly over where we had been standing upon the main top gallant mast head, was a ball of light, which the sailors call a corpuscent, corpus sancti, and which the mate had called out to us to look at. They were all watching it carefully. For sailors have a notion that if the corpuscent rises in the rigging it is a sign of fair weather, but if it comes lower down there will be a storm. Unfortunately as an omen it came down, and showed itself on the top gallant yard arm. We were off the yard in good season, for it is held a fatal sign to have the pale light of the corpuscent thrown upon one's face. As it was, the English lad did not feel comfortable at having to had it so near him, and directly over his head. In a few minutes it disappeared, and showed itself again on the four top gallant yard, and after playing about for some time disappeared once more, when the man on the folk soap pointed to it upon the flying jib-boom end. But our attention was drawn from watching this, by the falling of some drops of rain, and by a perceptible increase of the darkness, which seemed suddenly to add a new shade of blackness to the night. In a few minutes a low, grumbling thunder was heard, and some random flashes of lightning came from the southwest. Every sail was taken in by the topsoles. Still no squall appeared to be coming. A few puffs lifted the topsoles, but they fell again to the mast, and all was still as ever. A moment more in a terrific flash and peel broke simultaneously upon us, and a cloud appeared to open directly over our heads, and let down the water in one body like a falling ocean. We stood motionless, and almost stupefied, yet nothing had been struck. Peel after peel rattled over our heads, with a sound which seemed actually to stop the breath in the body, and the speedy gleams kept the whole ocean in a glare of light. The violent fall of rain lasted but a few minutes, and was followed by occasional drops in showers, but the lightning continued incessant for several hours, breaking the midnight darkness with irregular and blinding flashes. During all this time there was not a breath stirring, and we lay motionless, like a mark to be shot at, probably the only object on the surface of the ocean for miles and miles. We stood hour after hour until our watch was out, and we were relieved at four o'clock. During all this time hardly a word was spoken, no bells were struck, and the wheel was silently relieved. The rain fell at intervals in heavy showers, and we stood drenched through and blinded by the flashes, which broke the Egyptian darkness with a brightness that seemed almost malignant, while the thunder rolled in peels. The concussion of which appeared to shake the very ocean. A ship is not often injured by lightning, for the electricity is separated by the great number of points she presented and the quantity of iron which she has scattered in various parts. The electric fluid ran over our anchors, topsoil sheets, and ties, yet no harm was done to us. We went below at four o'clock, leaving things in the same state. It is not easy to sleep when the very next flash may tear the ship in two, or set her on fire, or where the deathlike calm may be broken by the blast of a hurricane, taking the mass out of the ship. But a man is no sailor if he cannot sleep when he turns in, and turn out when he is called, and when, at seven bells, the customary, all the larbored watch ahoy, brought us on deck. It was a fine, clear, sunny morning, the ship going leisurely along, with a soft breeze, and all sail set. End of Chapter 34 Chapter 35 of two years before the mast. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Two years before the mast by Richard Henry Dana, Jr. Chapter 35 More Stirring Incidents From the latitude of the West Indies until we got inside the Bermudas, where we took the westerly and southwestern winds, which blows subtly off the coast of the United States early in the autumn, we had every variety of weather, and two or three moderate gales, or a sailor's column, double reefed topsoil brazes, which come on in the usual manner, and of which one is a specimen of all. The fine afternoon, all hands at work, some in the rigging and others on deck, a stiff breeze, the ship close upon the wind, and skisals brailed down. Lighter part of the afternoon, breeze increases, ship lies over to it, and clouds look windy. Spray begins to fly over the focassal, and wet, the yarns the boys are knotting. Ball them up and put them below. Mate knocks off work, and clears up deck earlier than usual, and orders a man who has been employed aloft to send the royal halyards over to Windard as he comes down. Breast backstage hauled taut, and a take-o got upon the martingale back-rope. One of the boys furls the mizzen-royal. Cook thinks there is going to be nasty work, and has supper ready early. Mate gives orders to get supper by the watch instead of all hands, as usual. Without eating supper, hear the watch on deck taking in the royals. Coming on deck finds it is blowing harder, and an ugly head-sea running. Instead of having all hands on the focassal and the dog-watch smoking, singing, and telling yarns, one watch goes below and turns in, saying it is going to be an ugly night, and two hour sleep is not to be lost. Clouds look black and wild, wind-rising, and ship working hard against a heavy sea, which breaks over the focassal, and washes aft through the scuppers. Still, no more sail is taken in, for the captain is a driver, and like all drivers, very partial to his top-gallant sails. A top-gallant sail, too, makes the difference between a breeze and a gale. When a top-gallant sail is on a ship, it is only a breeze. Though I have seen hours set over a reef top-sail when half the bow-sprit was under the water, and it was up to a man's knees in the lease-guppers, at eight bells nothing is said about reefing the top-sails, and the watch go below, with orders to stand by for a call. We turn in, growling at the old man for not reefing the top-sails when the watch was changed, but putting it off so as to call all hands and break up a whole watch below. Turn in, all standing, and keep ourselves awake, saying there's no use going to sleep to be waked up again. Wind whistles on deck, and a ship works hard, groaning and creaking, and pitching into a heavy sea, which strikes the bowels with a noise like knocking upon a rock. The dim lamp in the folksal swings to and fro when things fetch away, and go over to Leward. Doesn't that booby of a second mate ever mean to take in his top-gallant sails? He'll have the sticks out of her soon. His old bill, who was always growling, and like most old sailors, did not like to see a ship abused. Buy and buy an order is given. Aye aye, sir, from the folksal. Rigging is thrown on deck, the noise of a sails heard fluttering aloft, and the short, quick cry which sailors make when hauling upon cluelines. Here comes his four-top-gallant sail in. We are wide awake, and know all that's going on as well as if we were on deck. A well-known voice is heard from the mass-head, singing out to the officer of the watch to haul-taught the weather-brace. Hello! There's been stinsonal off to furl the sail. Next thing rigging is thrown down directly over our heads, and a long-drawn cry and a rattling of hanks announce that the flying-jip has come in. The second mate holds on to the main-top-gallant sail until a heavy sea is shipped, and washes out of the folksal as though the whole ocean has come aboard, when a noise further aft shows that the sail, too, is taken in. After this, the ship is more easy for a time. Two bells are struck, and we try to get a little sleep. Buy and buy on the scuttle. We spring out of our berths, clap on a monkey-jacket in southwestern, and tumble up the ladder, made up before us and on the folksal singing out like a roaring bull, the captain singing out on the quarter-deck, and the second mate yelling like a hyena in the waist. The ship is lying over half upon her beam-ends, lee scuppers underwater and folksal all in a smother of foam. Rigging all at go, and washing about decks, topsill yards move down upon the caps, and sails flapping and beating against the masts, and starboard watch hauling out the reef-takers of the main-topsill. Our watch haul out the fore, and lay aloft, and put two reefs into it, and reef the fore-sills, and race with the starboard watch to see which will mast-head its topsill first. All hands tally on to the main-tack, and while some are furling the jib and hoisting the staysill, we mizentopman double-reef the mizentopsill and hoist it up. All being made fast, go below the watch, and we turn in to sleep out the rest of the time, which is perhaps an hour and a half. During all the middle, and for the first part of the morning watch, it blows as hard as ever, but towards daybreak it moderates considerably, and we shake a reef out of each topsill and set the top-gallant sails over them, and when the watch come up at seven bells for breakfast, shake the other reefs out, turn all hands two upon the halyards, get the flying-tackle upon the top-gallant sheets and halyards, set the flying jib, and crack on to her again. Our captain had been married only a few weeks before he left Boston, and after an absence of over two years it may be supposed he was not slow in carrying sail. The mate, too, was not to be beaten by anybody, and the second mate, though he was afraid to press sail, was still more afraid of the captain, and being between two fears sometimes carried on longer than any of them. We snapped off three flying jib-booms in twenty-four hours as fast as they could be fitted and rigged out, sprung the spritzill yard, and made nothing of studying sail-booms. Besides the natural desire to get home, we had another reason for urging the ship on. The scurvy had begun to show itself on board. One man had it so badly as to be disabled in octuity, and the English lad, Ben, was in a dreadful state, and was daily growing worse. His legs swelled and pained him so that he could not walk. His flesh lost its elasticity, so that if pressed in it would not return to its shape, and his gums swelled until he could not open his mouth. His breath, too, became very offensive. He lost all strength and spirit, and could eat nothing. Grew worse every day, and in fact, unless something was done for him, he would be a dead man in a week, at the rate at which he was sinking. The medicines were all or nearly all gone, and if we had had a chest full, they would have been no use, for nothing but fresh provisions in terra firma has any effect upon the scurvy. This disease is not so common now as formerly, and is attributed generally to salt provisions, want of cleanliness, and the free use of grease and fat, which is the reason of its prevalence among whalemen. And last of all, to laziness. It never could have been from the last cause on board our ship, nor from the second, for we were a very cleanly crew, and kept our folks ill in neat order, and were more particular about washing and changing clothes than many better dressed people on shore. It was probably from having none but salt provisions, and possibly from our having run very rapidly into hot weather, after our having been so long and extremist cold. Depending upon the westerly winds which prevail off the coast in the autumn, the captain stood well to the westward to run inside of the Bremunas in the hope of falling in with some vessel bound to the west indies or the southern states. The scurvy had spread no further among the crew, but there was danger that it might, and these cases were bad ones. Sunday September 11th, latitude thirty degrees, four minutes north, longitude sixty-three degrees, twenty-three minutes west. The Bremunas bearing north-north-west, distant one hundred and fifty miles, the next morning about ten o'clock, was cried on deck, and all hands turned up to see the stranger. As she drew nearer, she proved to be an ordinary-looking hermafordite brig, standing south-southeast and probably bound out from the northern states of the west indies, and was just the thing we wished to see. She hoped, too, for a scene that we wished to speak to her, and we ran down to her, boom ended our study-sills, backed our main topsills, and hailed her. Brigahoy! Hello? Who's from, Prey? Have you any fresh provisions to spare? Aye-aye, plenty of them! We lowered away the quarterboat instantly, and the captain in forehand sprang in, and were soon dancing over the water and alongside the brig. In about half an hour they returned, with half a boatload of potatoes and onions, and each vessel filled away and kept on her course. She proved to be the brig's Solon of Flemeth, from the Connecticut river and last from New York bound to the Spanish Main, with a cargo of fresh provisions, mules, tin bagpans, and other notions. The onions were fresh, and the mate of the brig told the men in the boat as he passed the bunches over the side, that the girls had strung them on purpose for us the day he sailed. We had made the mistake on board of supposing that a new president had been chosen last winter, and as we filled away, the captain hailed and asked who was president in the United States. They answered Andrew Jackson. But thinking that the old general could not have been elected for a third time, we hailed again, and they answered Jack Downing, and left us to correct the mistake at our leisure. Our boat's crew had a laugh upon one of our number, Joe, who was vain, and made the best show of everything. The style and gentility of a ship and her crew depend upon the length and character of the voyage. An India or China voyage always is the thing, and a voyage to the northwest coast, the Columbia River or Russian America, for furs is romantic and mysterious, and if it takes a ship around the world, by way of the islands in China, it outranks them all. The grave, slab-sided mate of the schooner leaned over the rail, and spoke to the men in our boat. Where are you from? Joe answered up quickly. From the northwest coast. What's your cargo? This was a poser, but Joe was ready with an equivoc. Skins, said he. Here in there a horn, asked the mate in the driest manner. The boat's crew laughed out, and Joe's glory faded. Apropos of this, a man named Sam on board the pilgrim used to tell a story of a mean little captain in a mean little brig, in which he sailed from Liverpool to New York, who insisted on speaking to a great, homeward-bound India man. With her studying souls out on both sides, sun-burnt men in wide-brimmed hats on her decks, and a monkey in a parakeet in her rigging, rolling down from St. Helena. There was no need of his stopping her to speak to her, but his vanity led him to do it, and then his meanness made him so awestruck that he seemed to quail. He called out in his small, lispy voice. What sip is that, poi? A deep-toned voice roared through the trumpet. The bar's sharp and cantor bound to Boston, 110 days out. Where are you from? Only from Liverpool, sir. He lisped in the most apologetic and subservient voice, but humor will be felt by those only who know the ritual of hailing at sea. No one says, sir, and the only is wonderfully expressive. It was just dinner time when we filled away, and the steward taking a few bunches of onions for the cabin gave the rest to us, with a bottle of vinegar. We carried them forward, stowed them away in the folksal, causing to have them cooked, and ate them raw, with our beef and bread, and a glorious treat they were. The freshness and crispness of the raw onion, with the earthy taste, gave it a great relish to one who has been a long time on salt provisions. We were ravenous after them. It was like a scent of blood to a hound. We ate them at every meal by the dozens, and filled their pockets with them, to eat in our watch on deck. And the bunches, rising in the form of a cone from the largest at the bottom to the smallest, no larger than a strawberry in the top, soon disappeared. The chief use, however, of the fresh provisions, was for the men with the scurvy. One of them was able to eat, and he soon brought himself too by gnawing upon raw potatoes and onions. But the other by this time was hardly able to open his mouth, and the cook took the potatoes raw, pounded them in a mortar, and gave him the juice to drink. This he swallowed by the teaspoonful at a time, and rinsed it about his gums and throat. The strong earthy taste and smell of this extract of the raw potato at first produced a shattering through his whole frame, and after drinking it, an acute pain, which ran through all parts of his body. Knowing by this that it was taking strong hold, he persevered, drinking a spoonful every hour or so and holding it a long time in his mouth, until by the effect of the strength and of his own restored hope, for he had nearly given up in despair. He became so well to be able to move about, and open his mouth enough to eat the raw potatoes and onions pounded into a soft pulp. This course soon restored his appetite and strength, and in ten days after we spoke to the Solon, so rapid was his recovery that, from line helpless and almost hopeless in his birth, he was at the mass-head furling a royal. With a fine south-west wind we passed inside the Bremutas, and notwithstanding the old couplet, which was coated again and again by those who thought we should have one more touch of storm before our voyage was up. If the Bremutas let you pass, you must beware of Hatteras. We went to the northward of Hatteras with good weather, and beginning to count, not the days, but the hours to the time when we should be at anchor in Boston Harbor. Our ship was in fine order, all hands having been hard at work upon her from daylight to dark, every day but Sunday from the time we got into warm weather on this side of the Cape. It is a common notion with landsmen that a ship is in her finest condition when she leaves port to enter upon her voyage, and that she comes home after a long absence. With overweathered ribs and ragged sails, lean, rent, and beggard by the strumpet wind. But so far from that, unless a ship meets with some accident or comes upon the coast in the dead of winter, when work cannot be done upon the rigging, she is in her finest order at the end of the voyage. When she sails from port her rigging is generally slack, the mast needs stain, the decks and sides are black and dirty from taking in cargo, rigors seizing and overhand knots in place of the nice seamen-like work. And everything to a sailor's eye adrift. But on the passage home the fine weather between the tropics is spent in putting the ship in the neatest order. No merchant vessel looks better than an Indian man or a Cape Horner after a long voyage, and captains and mates stake their reputation for seamanship upon the appearance of their ships when they haul into the dock. All our standing rigging for an act was set up and tarred, the mast stayed, the lower and top-mist rigging rattled down, or up, as the fashion now is, and so careful were our officials to keep the ratlins taut and straight, that we were obliged to go aloft upon the ropes and shear-pulls with which the rigging was swifted in, and these were used as jury ratlins until we got close upon the coast. After this the ship was scraped inside and out, decks, masts, booms, and all, a stage being rigged outside upon which we scraped her down to the water-line, pounding the rust off the chains, bolts, and fastenings. Then taking two days of calm under the line we painted her on the outside, giving her open ports in her streak and finishing off a nice work upon the stern, where sat Neptune in his car, holding his trident, drawn by sea-horses, and retouched the gilding and coloring of the cornucopia which ornamented her billet-head. The inside was then painted, from the sky-sulled truck to the water-ways, the yards black, mast-heads and tops white, monkey- rail black, white and yellow, Bollocks green, Plankshare white, water-ways lead color, etc., etc. The anchors and ring bolts and other iron work were blackened with coal tar, and the steward was kept at work polishing the brass of the wheel, bell, capstone, etc. The cabin, too, was scraped, varnished and painted, and the folk-sulls scraped and scrubbed, there being no need of paint and varnish for jacks-quarters. The decks were then scraped and varnished, and everything useless thrown overboard, among which the empty tar-barrels were set on fire and thrown overboard of a dark night and left blazing a stern, lighting up the ocean for miles. Add to all this labor the neat work upon the rigging, the knots, flamish eyes, splices, ceasings, coverings, pointings, and graffins which show a ship in crack order. The last preparation, in which it looks still more like coming to port, was getting the anchors over the boughs, bending the cables, rousing the hausers up from between decks, and overhauling the deep-sea lead-line. Thursday, September 15, this morning the temperature and peculiar appearance of the water, the quantities of golf weed floating about, and a bank of clouds lying directly before us, showed that we were on the border of the golf stream. This remarkable current running northeast nearly across the ocean is almost constantly shrouded in clouds and is the region of storms and heavy seas. Vessels often run from a clear sky and light wind with all cell, at once into a heavy sea and cloudy sky, with double- reefed topsills. A sailor told me that, on a passage from Gilbetrar to Boston, his vessel neared the golf stream with a light breeze, clear sky, and setting sail out, alone aloft, while lying before it was a long line of heavy black clouds, lying like a bank upon the water, and a vessel coming out of it under double- reefed topsills, and with royal yards sent down. As they drew near, they began to take in sail after sail, until they were reduced to the same condition. And after twelve or fourteen hours of rolling and pitching in a heavy sea before a smart gill, they ran out of the bank on the other side and were in fine weather again, and under their royals and skisels. As we drew into it, the sky became cloudy, the sea high, and everything had the appearance of the going off, or the coming on, of a storm. It was blowing no more than a stiff breeze, yet the wind being northeast, which is directly against the course of the current, made an ugly, chopping sea, which heaved and pitched the vessel about, so that we were obliged to send down the royal yards and to take in our light sails. At noon the thermometer, which had been repeatedly lowered into the water, showed the temperature to be seventy, which was considerably above that of the air, and is always the case in the center of the stream. A lad who had been at work in the royal mast head came down upon the deck and took a turn round the longboat, and looking pale, said he was so sick that he could stay aloft no longer, but was ashamed to acknowledge it to the officer. He went up again, but soon gave out and came down, and leaned over the rail as sick as a lady passenger. He had been to sea several years, and had, he said, never been sick before. He was made so by the irregular pitching motion of the vessel, increased by the height to which he had been above the hull, which is like the fulcrum of the lever. An old sailor who was at work on the top gallant yard, said he felt disagreeably all the time, and was glad when his job was done, to get down into the top or upon deck. Another hand was sent to the royal mast head, who stayed nearly an hour, but gave up. The work must be done, and the mate sent me. I did very well for some time, but began at length to feel unpleasantly, though I never had been sick since the first two days from Boston, and had been in all sorts of weather and situations. Still I kept my place, and did not come down until I got through my work, which was more than two hours. The ship certainly never acted so before. She was pitched and jerked about in all manner of ways. The sails seemed to have no steadying power over her. The tapering points of the masts made various curves against the sky overhead, and sometimes in one sweep of an instant, described an arc of more than forty-five degrees, bringing up with a sudden jerk, which made it necessary to hold on with both hands, and then sweeping off in another long irregular curve. I was not positively sick, and came down with a look of indifference, yet was not unwilling to get upon the comparative terra firma of the deck. A few hours more carried us through, and when we saw the sun go down upon our labored beam in the direction of the continents of North America, we had left the bank of dark, stormy clouds of stern in the twilight. End of Chapter 35 Chapter 36 of Two Years Before the Mast This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dean and Junior Chapter 36 Haraw for Yankee Land Friday, September 16th Latitude, thirty-eight degrees north, longitude, sixty-nine degrees, zero minutes west. A fine southwest wind, every hour carrying us nearer towards the land. All hands on deck at the dog-watch, and nothing talked about but are getting in, where we should make the land, whether we should arrive before Sunday, going to church, how Boston would look, friends, wages paid, and the like. Everyone was in the best of spirits, and the voyage being nearly at an end. The strictness of discipline was relaxed, for it was not necessary to order in a cross-tone, what all were ready to do with the will. The differences in quarrels which a long voyage breathed unbored as ship were forgotten, and everyone was friendly. And two men, who had been on the eve of a fight, half the voyage, were laying out a plan together for a cruise on shore. When the mate came forward he talked to the men, and said we should be on George's bank before to-morrow noon, and joked with the boys, promising to go and see them, and to take them down to Marblehead in a coach. Saturday, 17th. The wind was light all day, which kept us back somewhat, but a fine breeze springing up at nightfall we were running fast in towards the land. At six o'clock we expected to have the ship hoped to for soundings. As a thick fog, coming up, showed we were near them. But no order was given, and we kept on our way. Eight o'clock came, and the watch went below, and for the whole of the first hour the ship was driving on, with studying-sills out, low and aloft, and the night is dark as a pocket. At two bells the captain came on deck and said a word to the mate when the studying-sills were hauled into the tops, or boom-ended. The after-yards backed, the deep sea-led carried forward, and everything got ready for sounding. A man on the spritzel-yard with the lead, another on the cat-head with a handful of the line coiled up, another on the four chains, another in the main chains, each with a quantity of the line coiled away in his hand. All ready there, Ford? Aye, aye, sir. Heeey! Singed out the man on the spritzel-yard, and the heavy lead drops into the water, balls the man on the cat-head, as the last fake of the coiled drops from his hand, and watch out! is shouted by each one as the line falls from his hold, until it comes to the mate, who tends the lead, and has the line in coils on the quarter-deck. A.T. fathoms a no bottom, a depth as great as the height of St. Peter's. The line is snatched in a block upon the swifter, and three or four men haul it in and coil it away. The after-yards are brazed full, the studying-sills hauled out again, and in a few minutes more the ship had her whole way upon her. Four bells back again, hove the lead, and soundings, at sixty fathoms, hurrah for Yankee land! Hand over hand we hauled the lead in, and the captain, taking it to the light, found black mud on the bottom. Studying-sills taken in, after-yards filled away, and ship kept on under easy-sell all night, the wind dying away. The soundings on the American coast are so regular that a navigator knows as well where he has made land by the soundings as he would by seeing land. Black mud is the soundings of Block Island. As you go towards Nantucket it changes to a dark sand, then sand in white shells, and on George's banks white sand, and so on. As our soundings showed us to be off Block Island, our course was due east to Nantucket Shoals and the South Channel. But the wind died away and left us be calmed in a thick fog, in which we lay the whole of Sunday. At noon of Sunday, 18th, Block Island bore by calculation northwest one quarter west, fifteen miles, but the fog was so thick all day that we could see nothing. Having got through the ship's duty and washed and changed our clothes, we went below and had a fine time overhauling our chests, laying aside the clothes we meant to go ashore in, and throwing overboard all that were worn out and good for nothing. Away went the woollen caps, in which we had carried hides upon our heads for sixteen months, on the coasts of California, the duck frocks for tarring down rigging, and the worn-out and darned mittens and patched woollen trousers which had stood the tub of Cape Horn. We hoeved them overboard with a good will, for there is nothing like being quit of the very last appendages, remnants and mementos of our hard fortune. We got our chests all ready for going ashore, ate the last duff we expected to have on board the ship alert, and talked confidently about matters on shore, as though our anchor were on the bottom. Who will go to church with me awake from today? I will, says Jack, who said I to everything. Go away, saltwater, says Tom. As soon as I get both legs ashore, I'm going to shoe my heels and button my ears behind me, and start off into the bush, a straight course, and not stop telling it out of the sight of saltwater. O belay that, if you once get moored stem and stern in old barn's grog shop with a coal fire ahead in the barn to your lee, you won't see daylight for three weeks. No, says Tom. I'm going to knock off grog and go on board at the home and see if they won't ship me for a deacon. And I, says Bill, I'm going to buy a quadrant and ship for navigator of a Hengen packet. Harry White swore he would take up rooms at the Tremont house and set up for a gentleman. He knew his wages would hold out for two weeks or so. These and the like served to pass the time while we were lying waiting for a breeze to clear up the fog and send us on our way. Towards night a moderate breeze sprang up. The fog, however, continuing as thick as before, and we kept on to the eastward. About the middle of the first watch a man on the folksill sang out, in a tone which showed that there was not a moment to be lost. And a great ship loomed up out of the fog, coming directly down upon us. She left at the same moment, and we just passed each other, our spanker-boom grazing over her quarter. The officer of the deck had only time to hail, and she answered as she went into the fog again something about Bristol. Only a whaleman from Bristol, Rhode Island, bound out. The fog continued through the night with a very light breeze, before which we ran to the eastward, literally feeling our way along. The lead was heaved every two hours, and the gradual change from black mud to sand showed that we were approaching Nantucket South Shoals. On Monday morning the increased depth in the dark blue color of the water, and the mixture of shells and white sand which we brought up upon sounding, showed that we were in the channel, and nearing George's. Accordingly the ship's head was put directly to the northward, and we stood on, with perfect confidence in the soundings. Though we had not taken an observation for two days, and the difference of an eighth of a mile out of the way might put us ashore. Throughout the day a provokingly light wind prevailed, and at eight o'clock a small fishing schooner, which we passed, told us we were nearly abreast of chatham lights. Just before midnight a light land breeze sprang up, which carried us well along, and at four o'clock thinking ourselves to the northward of Race Point we hauled upon the wind and stood into the bay, west-northwest, for Boston light, and began firing guns for a pilot. Our watch went below at four o'clock, but could not sleep, for the watch on deck were banging away at the guns every few minutes, and indeed we carried very little about it, for we were in Boston Bay, and if fortune favored us we could all sleep in the next night, with nobody to call the watch every four hours. We turned out, of our own will, a daybreak to get a sight of land. In the gray of the morning one or two small fishing smacks peered out of the mist, and when the broad day broke upon us, there lay the low sandhills of Cape Cod over our larbored quarter, and before us the wide waters of Massachusetts Bay, with here and there a sail gliding over its smooth surface. As we drew in towards the mouth of the harbor, as towards a focus, the vessels began to multiply until the bay seemed alive with sails gliding about in all directions, some on the wind and others before it, as they were bound to or from the emporium of trade and center of the bay. It was a stirring sight for us, who had been months on the ocean without seeing anything but two solitary sails, and over two years without seeing more than three or four traders on an almost desolate coast. There were the little coasters bound to and from the various towns along the south shore, down in the bite of the bay, and to the eastward, here and there, a square rigged vessel standing out to seward, and far in the distance, beyond Cape Ann, was the smoke of a steamer stretching along in a narrow black cloud upon the water. Every sight was full of beauty and interest. We were coming back to our homes, and the signs of civilization and prosperity and happiness, from which we had been so long banished, were multiplying about us. The high land of Cape Ann and the rocks and shore of Cohasset were full in sight, the lighthouses standing like centuries in white before the harbors, and even the smoke from the chimneys on the plains of Hingham was seen rising slowly in the morning air. One of our boys was the son of a bucket maker, and his face lighted up as he saw the tops of the well-known hills which surrounded his native place. About ten o'clock, a little boat came bobbing over the water and put a pilot on board, and cheered off in pursuit of other vessels bound in. Being now within the scope of the telegraph stations, our signals were run up at the fore, and in half an hour afterwards the owner on change, or in his counting room, knew that his ship was below, and the landlords, runners, and sharks in Ann Street learned that there was a rich prize for them down in the bay, a ship from round the horn, with a crew to be paid off with two years' wages. The wind continuing very light, all hands were sent aloft to strip off the chafing gear, and battens, parcelings, roundings, hoops, mats, and leathers came flying from aloft, and left the rigging neat and clean, stripped of all its sea bandaging. The last touch was put to the vessel by painting the sky-sill poles, and I was sent up to the fore with a bucket of white paint, and a brush, and touched her off, from the truck to the eyes of the royal rigging. At noon we lay becalmed off the lower lighthouse, and, it being about slack water, we made little progress. A firing was heard in the direction of Hingham, and the pilot said there was a review there. The Hingham boy got wind of this, and said if the ship had been twelve hours sooner he should have been down among the soldiers and in the booths, having a grand time. As it was we had little prospect of getting in before night. About two o'clock a breeze sprang up ahead, from the westward, and we began beating up against it. A full rigged brig was beating in at the same time, and we passed each other in our tacks, sometimes one, and sometimes the other working to windard, as the wind and tide favored or opposed. It was my trick at the will from two to four, and I stood my last helm, making between nine hundred and a thousand hours which I had spent at the helms of our two vessels. The tide beginning to set against us we made slow work, and the afternoon was nearly spent before we got abreast of the inner light. In the meanwhile several vessels were coming down, outward bound, among which a fine large ship, with yards squared, fair wind and fair tide, passed us like a race horse, the men running out upon her yards to rig out the sitting saloons. Towards sundown the wind came off in flaws, sometimes blowing very stiff, so that the pilot took in the royals, and then it died away. When, in order to get us in before the tide became too strong, the royals were set again. As this kept us running up and down the rigging, one hand was sent aloft at each mast head, to stand by to loose and furl the sails at the moment of the order. I took my place at the fore, and loosed and furled the royal five times before Rainsford Island and the castle. At one tack we ran so near to Rainsford Island, that looking down from the royal yard, the island, with its hospital buildings, nice graveled walks, and green flats, seemed to lie directly under our yard arms. So close is the channel to some of these islands, that we ran the end of our flying jet boom over one of the outworks of the fortifications on George's Island, and had an opportunity of seeing the advantages of that point as a fortified place. For, in working up the channel, we presented a fair stem and stern for raking, from the batteries three or four times. One gun might have knocked us to pieces. We had all set our hearts on getting up to town before night, and going ashore. But the tide beginning to run strong against us, and the wind, what there was of it being ahead, we made little by weather bowing the tide. And the pilot gave orders to cock-build the anchor and overhaul the chain. Making too long stretches, which brought us into the roads, under the lee of the castle, he clued up the topsills and let go the anchor. And for the first time, since living San Diego, one hundred and thirty-five days, our anchor was upon the bottom. In half an hour more we were lined snugly with all sails furrowed, safe in Boston Harbor. Our long voyage ended. The well-known scene about us, and the dome of the Statehouse fading in the western sky, the lights of the city starting into sight, as the darkness came on, and at nine o'clock the clanger of the bells ringing their custom peels, among which the Boston boys tried to distinguish the well-known tone of the Old South. We had just done furling the sails when a beautiful little pleasure boat left up into the wind under a quarter, and the junior partner of the firm to which our ship belonged, Mr. Hooper, jumped on board. I saw him from the missing topsill yard and knew him well. He shook the captain by the hand and went into the cabin, and in a few minutes came up and inquired of the mate for me. The last time I had seen him, I was in the uniform of an undergraduate of Harvard College. And now, due his astonishment, there came down from aloft a rough alley-looking fellow with duck trousers and red shirt, long hair, and face burnt as dark as an Indian's. We shook hands, and he congratulated me upon my return in my appearance of health and strength, and said that my friends were all well. He had seen some of my family a few days before. I thanked him for telling me what I should not have dared to ask, and if— The first bringer of unmole news hath but a losing office, and his tongue sounds ever after like a solemn bell. Certainly I ought ever to remember this man and his words with pleasure. The captain went up to the town in the boat with Mr. Hooper, and left us to pass another night on board ship, and to come up with the morning's tide under command of the pilot. So much to be feel ourselves to be already at home in anticipation that our plain supper of hard bread and salt-beef were barely touched, and many on board, to whom this was the first voyage, could scarcely sleep. As for myself, by one of those anomalous changes of feeling of which we are all the subjects, I found that I was in a state of indifference, for which I could by no means account. A year before while carrying hides on the coast, the assurance that in a twelve-month we should see Boston made me half-wild. But now that I was actually there, and inside of home, the emotions which I had so long anticipated feeling I did not find, and in their place was a state, a very nearly entire apathy. Something of the same experience was related to me by a sailor whose first voyage was one of five years upon the northwest coast. He had left home a lad, and went after so many years of hard and trying experience. He found himself homeward bound. Such was the excitement of his feelings, that during the whole passage he could talk and think of nothing else but his arrival, and how and when he should jump from the vessel, and take his way directly home. Yet, when the vessel was made fast to the wharf, and the crew dismissed, he seemed suddenly to lose all feeling about the matter. He told me that he went below and changed his dress, took some water from the scuttle-butt and washed himself leisurely, overhauled his chest, and put his clothes all in order, took his pipe from its place, filled it, and sitting down upon his chest, smoked it slowly for the last time. Here he looked around upon the folksal in which he had spent so many years, and being alone in his shipmates scattered, began to feel acutely unhappy. Home became almost a dream, and it was not until his brother, who had heard of the ship's arrival, came down into the folksal and told him of things at home, and who were waiting there to see him, that he could realize where he was, and feel interest enough to put him in motion towards that place, for which he had longed, and of which he had dreamed, for years. There is probably so much of excitement in prolonged expectation that the quiet realizing of it produces a momentary stagnation of feeling as well as of effort. It was a good deal so with me. The activity of preparation, the rapid progress of the ship, the first making land, the coming up the harbor, and old scenes breaking upon the view, produced a mental as well as bodily activity, from which the change to perfect stillness, when both expectation and the necessity of labor failed, left a calmness, almost an indifference, from which I must be roused by some new excitement. And the next morning, when all hands were called, and we were busily at work clearing the decks, and getting everything in readiness for going up to the wharves, loading the guns for a salute, loosening the sails, and manning the windlass, mind and body seem to wake together. About ten o'clock a sea breeze sprang up, and the pilot gave orders to get the ship underway. All hands maned the windlass, and the long drawn, yo hee ho, which we had last heard dying away among the desolate hills of San Diego, soon brought the anchor to the bowels. And with a fair wind entide, a bright sunny morning, sunday royals on Skysil set, the ensign streamer, signals, and pennant flying, and with our guns firing, we came swiftly and handsomely up to the city. And no sooner was it on the bottom than the decks were filled with people. Custom house officers, topless agent to inquire for news, others inquiring for friends on board, or left upon the coast, dealers in Greece besieging the galley to make a bargain with a cook for his slush, loafers in general, and last and chief, boarding house runners to secure their men. Nothing can exceed the obliging disposition of these runners, and the interest they take in a sailor return from a long voyage with a plenty of money. Two or three of them at different times took me by the hand, pretended to remember me perfectly, were quite sure I had boarded with them before I sailed, were delighted to see me back, gave me their cards, had a handcart waiting on the wharf on purpose to take my things up, would lend me a hand to get my chest ashore, bring a bottle of grog on board if we did not haul in immediately, and the like. In fact, we could hardly get clear of them to go aloft and furl the sails. Sail after sail for the hundredth time in fair weather and in foul, we furled now for the last time together, and came down and took the wharf ashore, manned the capstan, and with a chorus, which waked at half-north end, and ran among the buildings in the dock, we hauled her into the wharf. The city bells were just ringing one, when the last turn was made fast, and the crew dismissed, and in five minutes more not a soul was left on board the good ship alert, but the old shipkeeper, who had come down from the counting-house to take charge of her, end of chapter twenty-six, original concluding chapter, part one of Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana, Jr. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana, Jr., original concluding chapter, I trust that they, who have followed me to the end of my narrative, will not refuse to carry their attention a little farther to the concluding remarks which I here present to them. This chapter is written after the lapse of a considerable time since the end of my voyage, and after a return to my former pursuits, and in it I designed to offer those views of what may be done for semen, and what is already doing, which I have deduced from my experiences, and from the attention which I have since gladly given to the subject. The romantic interests which many take in the sea, and in those who live upon it, may be of use in exciting their attention to this subject, although I cannot but feel sure that all who have followed me in my narrative must be convinced that the sailor has no romance in his everyday life to sustain him, but that it is very much the same plain matter-of-fact drudgery and hardship which would be experienced on shore. If I have not produced this conviction, I have failed in persuading others of what my own experience has most fully impressed upon myself. There is a witchery in the sea, its songs and stories, and in the mere sight of a ship, and the sailor's dress, especially to a young mind, which has done more to man-navies and fill merchant men than all the press-kings of Europe. I have known a young man with such a passion for the sea that the very creaking of a block stirred up his imagination so that he could hardly keep his feet on dry ground, and many are the boys in every seaport who are drawn away as by an almost irresistible attraction from their work and schools, and hang about the decks and yards of vessels, with the fondness which, it is plain, will have its way. No sooner, however, has the young sailor begin his new life in earnest, that all this fine drapery falls off, and he learns that it is but work and hardship after all. This is the true light in which a sailor's life is to be viewed, and if in our books and anniversary speeches we would leave out much that is said about. Blue water, blue jackets, open hearts, seeing God's hand in the deep, and so forth, and take this up like any other practical subject. I am quite sure we should do full as much for those we wish to benefit. The question is, what can be done for sailors as they are, meant to be fed, and clothed in lodge, for whom laws must be made and executed, and who are to be instructed in useful knowledge, and above all to be brought under religious influence and restraint. It is upon these topics that I wish to make a few observations. In the first place I have no fancies about equality on board ship. It is a thing out of the question, and certainly in the present state of mankind not to be desired. I never knew a sailor who found fault with the orders and ranks of the service, and if I expected to pass the rest of my life before the mast I would not wish to have the power of the captain diminish in Iota. It is absolutely necessary that there should be one head and one voice to control everything, and be responsible for everything. There are emergencies which require the instant exercise of extreme power. These emergencies do not allow of consultation, and they who would be the captain's constituted advisors might be the very men over whom he would be called upon to exert his authority. It has been found necessary to vest in every government even the most democratic, some extraordinary, and at first sight alarming powers, trusting in public opinion and subsequent accountability to modify the exercise of them. These are provided to meet emergencies, which all hope may never occur, but which yet by possibility may occur, and if they should, and there were no power to meet them instantly, there would be an end put to the government at once. So it is with the authority of the ship master. It will not answer to say that he shall never do this and that thing, because it does not seem always necessary and advisable that it should be done. He, his great cares and responsibilities, is answerable for everything, and is subject to emergencies which perhaps no other man exercising authority among civilized people is subject to, let him then have powers commensurate with his utmost possible need. Only let him be held strictly responsible for the exercise of them. Any other course would be in justice as well, as bad policy. In the treatment of those under his authority, the captain is amenable to the common law, like any other person. He is liable at common law for murder, assault, and battery, and other offenses. And in addition to this, there is a special statute of the United States which makes a captain or other officer liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years, and to a fine not exceeding a thousand dollars for inflicting any cruel punishment upon, withholding food from, or in any other way, maltreating a semen. This is the state of the law on the subject, while the relation in which the parties stand and the peculiar necessities, excuses, and provocations arising from the relation are merely circumstances to be considered in each case. As to the restraints upon the master's exercise of power, the laws themselves seem on the whole to be sufficient. I do not see that we are in need at present of more legislation on the subject. The difficulty lies rather in the administration of the laws, and this is certainly a matter that deserves great consideration, and one of no little embarrassment. In the first place, the courts have said that public policy requires the power of the master and officers should be sustained. Many lives in a great amount of property are constantly in their hands, for which they are strictly responsible. To preserve these and to deal justly by the captain, not lay upon him a really fearful responsibility, and then tie up his hands, it is essential that discipline should be supported. In the second place, there is always great allowance to be made for false swearing and exaggeration by seamen, and for combinations among them against their officers, and it is to be remembered that the latter have often no one to testify on their side. These are weighty and true statements and should not be lost sight of by the friends of seamen. On the other hand, sailors make many complaints, some of which are well founded. On the subject of testimony, seamen labor under difficulty full as great as that of the captain. It is a well-known fact that they are usually much better treated when there are passengers on board. The presence of passengers is a restraint upon the captain, not only from his regard to their feelings and to estimation in which they may hold him, but because he knows they will be influential witnesses against him if he is brought to trial. Though officers may sometimes be inclined to show themselves off before passengers by freaks of office and authority, yet cruelty they would hardly dare to be guilty of. It is on long and distant voyages where there is no restraint upon the captain and none but the crew to testify against him, that sailors need most the protections of the law. On such voyages as these there are many cases of outrageous cruelty on record enough to make one heart sick and almost disgusted with the sight of man, and many, many more which have never come to light and never will be known until the sea shall give up its dead. Many of these have led to mutiny and piracy, stripe for stripe and blood for blood. If on voyages of this description the testimony of a seaman is not to be received in favor of one another, or too great a deduction is made on account of there being seaman, their case is without remedy, and the captain, knowing this, will be strengthened in that disposition to tyrannize which the possession of absolute power without the restraint of friends and public opinion is too apt to engender. It is to be considered also that the sailor comes into court under very different circumstances from the master. He is thrown among landlords and sharks of all descriptions, is often led to drink freely, and comes upon the stand unaided and under a certain cloud of suspicion as to his character and veracity. The captain on the other hand is backed by the owners and insurers, and has an air of greater respectability, though after all he may have but a little better education than the sailor. And sometimes, especially among those engaged in certain voyages that I could mention, a very hackneyed conscience. These are the considerations most commonly brought up on the subject of seaman's evidence, and I think it cannot be but obvious to everyone that here positive legislation would be of no manner of use. There can be no rule of law regulating the weight to be given to seaman's evidence. It must rest in the mind of the judge and jury, and no enactment or positive rule of court could vary the result a hair in any one case. The effect of a sailor's testimony in deciding a case must depend all together upon the reputation of the class to which he belongs, and upon the impression he himself produces in court by his deportment, and by those infallible marks of character which always tell upon a jury. In fine, after all the well-meant and specious projects that have been brought forward, we seem driven back to the belief that the best means of securing a fairer administration of the law is made for the protection of seaman, and certainly the only means one can create any important change for the better, is the gradual one of raising the intellectual and religious character of the sailor, so that as an individual and as one of a class he may, in the first instance command the respect of his officers, and if any difficulty should happen, may upon the stand carry that weight which an intelligent and respectable man of the lower class almost always does with a jury. I know there are many men who, when a few cases of great hardship occur, and it is evident that there is an evil somewhere, think that some arrangement must be made, some law passed, or some society got up, to set all right at once. On this subject there can be no call for any such movement. On the contrary, I fully believe that any public and strong action would do harm, and that we must be satisfied to labor in the less easy and less exciting task of a gradual improvement, and abide the issue of things working slowly together for good. Equally injudicious would be any interference with the economy of the ship, the lodging, food, hours of sleep, etc., are all matters which, though capable of many changes for the better, must yet be left to regulate themselves. And I am confident that there will be, and that there is now a gradual improvement in all such particulars. The folksills of most of our ships are small, black, and wet holes, which few landsmen would believe held a crew of ten or twelve men in a voyage of months or years. And often indeed in most cases the provisions are not good enough to make a meal anything more than a necessary part of the day's duty. Note. I'm not sure that I have stated in the course of my narrative the manner in which sailors eat on board ship. There are neither tables, knives, forks, nor plates in a folksill, but the kid, a wooden tub with iron hoops, is placed on the floor, and the crew sit round it, and each man cuts for himself with the common jackknife or sheath knife that he carries about him. They drink their tea out of tin pots, holding little less than a quart each. These particulars are not looked upon as hardships, and indeed may be considered matters of choice. Sailors and armored tipmen furnish their own eating utensils, as they do many of the instruments which they use in the ship's work, such as knives, palms, and needles, marlin spikes, rubbers, etc. And considering their mode of life in other respects, that little time they would have for laying and clearing away a table with its apparatus, and the room it would take up in the folksill, as well as the simple character their meals, consisting generally of only one piece of meat. It is certainly a convenient method, and as the kid and pans are usually kept perfectly clean, a neat and simple one. I had supposed these things to be generally known until I heard a few months ago a lawyer of repute who has had a good deal to do with marine cases asked a sailor upon the stand whether the crew had got up from the table when a certain thing happened. End note. And on the score of sleep I fully believe that the lives of merchant seamen are shortened by the want of it. I do not refer to those occasions when it is necessarily broken in upon, but for months during fine weather in many merchant men. All hands are kept throughout the day, and then there are eight hours on deck for one watch each night. Thus it is usually the case that at the end of a voyage where there has been the finest weather and no disaster, the crew have a wearied and worn out appearance. They never sleep longer than four hours at a time, and are seldom called without being really in need of more rest. There is no one thing that a sailor thinks more of as a luxury of life on shore than a whole night's sleep. Still, all these things must be left to be gradually modified by circumstances. Whenever hard cases occur they should be made known and masters and owners should be held answerable, and will no doubt in time be influenced in their arrangements and discipline by the increased consideration in which sailors are held by the public. It is perfectly proper that the men should live in a different part of the vessel from the officers, and if the folksal is made large and comfortable there is no reason why the crew should not live there as well as in any other part. In fact sailors prefer the folksal. It is their custom place, and in it they are out of the sight and hearing of their officers. As to their food and sleep there are laws with heavy penalties requiring a certain amount of stores to be on board, and safely stowed. And for depriving the crew unnecessarily of food or sleep the captain is liable at common law as well as under the statute before referred to. Farther than this it would not be safe to go. The captain must be the judge when it is necessary to keep his crew from their sleep, and sometimes a retrenching, not of necessities, but of some of the little niceties of their meals as for instance duff on Sundays may be a mode of punishment, though I think generally an injudicious one. I could not do justice to this subject without noticing one part of the discipline of the ship, which has been very much discussed of late and has brought out strong expressions of indonation for many. I mean the infliction of corporal punishment. Those who have followed me in my narrative will remember that I was witness to an act of great cruelty inflicted upon my own shipmates, and indeed I can sincerely say that the simple mention of the word flogging brings up in me fillings which I can hardly control. Yet when the proposition is made to abolish it entirely and at once, to prohibit the captain from ever under any circumstances inflicting corporal punishment, I am obliged to pause. And I must say to doubt exceedingly the expediency of making any positive enactment which shall have that effect. If the design of those who are writing on this subject is merely to draw public attention to it and to discourage the practice of flogging and bring it into disrepute, it is well, and indeed whatever may be the end they have in view, the mere agitation of the question will have that effect, and so far must be good. Yet I do not wish to take the command of a ship tomorrow running my chance of a crew as most masters must, and know, and have my crew know, that I could not under any circumstances inflict even moderate chastisement. I should trust that I might never have to resort to it, and indeed I scarcely know what risk I would not run, and to what inconvenience I would not subject myself rather than do so. Yet not to have the power of holding it up in terrorim, and indeed of protecting myself, and all under my charge by it, if some extreme case should arise, would be a situation I should not wish to be placed in myself, or to take the responsibility of placing another in. Indeed the difficulties into which masters and officers are liable to be thrown are not sufficiently considered by many whose sympathies are easily excited by stories frequent enough, and true enough, of outrageous abuse of this power. It is to be remembered that more than three force of the semen in our merchant vessels are foreigners. They are from all parts of the world, a great many from the north of Europe, besides Frenchmen, Spaniards, Portuguese, Italians, men from all parts of the Mediterranean, together with Laskers, Negroes, and perhaps worst of all, the offcast of British men of war, and men from their own country who have gone to sea because they could not be permitted to live on land. As things now are, many masters are obliged to sell without knowing anything of their crews until they get out at sea. There may be pirates or mutineers among them, and one bad man will often infect all the rest, and it is almost certain that some of them will be ignorant foreigners hardly understanding a word of our language, accustomed all their lives to no influence but force, and perhaps nearly as familiar with the use of the knife as with that of the Marlin Spike. No prudent master, however peaceably inclined, would go to sea without his pistols and handcuffs. Even with such a crew as I have supposed, kindness and moderation would be the best policy, and the duty of every conscientious man. In the administrative strain of corporal punishment might be dangerous, and of doubtful use. But the question is not what a captain ought generally to do, but whether it shall be put out of the power of every captain, under any circumstances to make use of even moderate chastisement. As the law now stands, a parent may correct moderately his child and the master his apprentice, and the case of the shipmaster has been placed upon the same principle. The statutes and the common law as expounded in the decision of courts and in the books of commentators are express, and unanimous to this point, that the captain may inflict moderate corporal chastisement for a reasonable cause. If the punishment is excessive or the cause not sufficient to justify it, he is answerable, and the jury are to be determined by their verdict in each case, whether, under all the circumstances, the punishment was moderate and for a justifiable cause. This seems to me to be as good a position as the whole subject can be left in. I mean to say that no positive enactment going beyond this is needed or would be a benefit either to masters or men, in the present state of things. This again would seem to be a case which should be left to the gradual working of its own cure. As seeming improved punishment will become less necessary, and as the character of officers is raised they will be less ready to inflict it, and, still more, the infliction of it upon intelligent and respectable men will be an enormity which will not be tolerated by public opinion, and by juries who are the pulse of the public body. No one can have a greater abhorrence to the infliction of such punishment than I have and a stronger conviction that severity is a bad policy with a crew, yet I would ask every reasonable man whether he had not better trust to the practice becoming unnecessary and disreputable, to the measure of moderate chance-tizement and justifiable cause being better understood, and thus the act becoming dangerous, and in the course of time to be regarded as an unheard of barbarity, then to take the responsibility of prohibiting it at once, in all cases, and in whatever degree by positive enactment. End of part one, original concluding chapter. Original concluding chapter part two by Richard Henry Dana Jr. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Original concluding chapter part two. There is, however, one point connected with the administration of justice to Seaman, to which I wish seriously to call the attention of those interested in their behalf, and, if possible, also some of those concerned in that administration. This is the practice which prevails of making strong appeals to the jury in mitigation of damages, or to the judge after a verdict has been rendered against a captain or officer for a lenient sentence, on the grounds of their previous good character and of their being poor and having friends and families depending upon them for support. These appeals have been allowed to wait, which is almost incredible, and which I think works a greater hardship upon Seaman than any one other thing in the laws, or the execution of them, notwithstanding every advantage the captain has over the Seaman in point of evidence, friends, money, and able counsel. It becomes apparent that he must fail in his defense. An appeal is then made to the jury if it is a civil action or to the judge for a mitigated sentence, if it is a criminal prosecution, and on the two grounds I have mentioned, the same form has usually gone through in every case, in the first place as to the previous good character of the party. Witnesses are brought from the town in which he resides to testify to his good character and his unexceptionable conduct when on shore. They say that he is a good father, a husband, or son, or neighbor, and that they never saw in him any signs of a cruel or tyrannical disposition. I have even known evidence admitted to show the character he bore when a boy at school. The owners of the vessel and other merchants, and perhaps the president of the insurance company, are then introduced and they testify to his correct deportment, express their confidence in his honesty, and say that they have never seen anything in his conduct to justify a suspicion of his being capable of cruelty or tyranny. This evidence is then put together and great stress is laid upon the extreme respectability of those who give it. They are the companions and neighbors of the captain. It is said, men who know him in his business and domestic relations and who knew him in his early youth. They are also men of the highest standing in the community, and who, as the captain's employers, must be supposed to know his character. This testimony is then contrasted with out of some haphazard and obscure sailors, who the council will not forget to add, are exasperated against the captain because he has found it necessary to punish them moderately and who have combined against him, and if they have not fabricated a story entirely, have at least so exaggerated that little confidence can be placed in it. The next thing to be done is to show to the court and jury that the captain is a poor man and has a wife and family or other friends depending upon him for support, that if he is fined it will only be taking bread from the mouths of the innocent and helpless and laying a burden upon them which their whole lives will not be able to work off, and that if he is imprisoned via confinement, to be sure, he will have to bear, but the distress consequent upon the cutting him off from his labor and means of earning his wages will fall upon a poor wife and helpless children or upon an infirm parent. These two topics well put and urged home earnestly seldom fail of their effect. In depreciation of this mode of proceeding and in behalf of men who I believe are every day wronged by it, I would urge a few considerations which seem to me to be conclusive. First, as to the evidence of the good character the captain sustains on shore, it is to be remembered that masters of vessels have usually been brought up in the folksal and upon all men, and especially upon those taken from lower situations the conferring of absolute power is too apt to work a great change. There are many captains who I know to be cruel and tyrannical men at sea who yet among their friends and in their families have never lost the reputation they bore in childhood. In fact the sea captain is seldom at home and when he is his stay is short and during the continuance of it he is surrounded by friends who treat him with kindness and consideration and he is everything to please and at the same time to restrain him. He would be a brute indeed if after an absence of months or years during his short stay so short that the novelty and excitement of it is hardly time to wear off and the attentions he receives as a visitor and stranger hardly time to slacken if under such circumstances a townsman or neighbor would be justified and testifying against his correct and peaceable deportment. With the owners of the vessel also to which he is attached and among merchants and insurers generally he is a very different man from what he may be at sea when his own master and the master of everybody and everything about him. He knows that upon such men and their good opinion of him he depends for his bread so far from their testimony being of any value in determining what his conduct would be at sea one would expect that the master who would abuse and impose upon a man under his power would be the most compliant and deferential to his employers at home. As to the appeal made in the captain's behalf on the ground of his being poor and having persons depending upon his labor for support the main and fatal objection to it is that it will cover every case of the kind and exempt nearly the whole body of masters and officers from the punishment the law has provided for them. There are very few if any masters or other officers of merchant men in our country who are not poor men and having either parents wise or children or other relatives depending mainly or wholly upon their exertions for support in life few others follow the sea for substance now if this appeal is to have weight with the courts and diminishing the penalty the law would otherwise inflict is not the whole class under a privilege which will in a degree protect it in wrongdoing it is not a thing that happens now and then it is the invariable appeal the last resort of counsel when everything else has failed i have known cases of the most flagrant nature where after every ever it has been made for the captain and yet a verdict rendered against him and all other hope failed this appeal has been urged and with such success that the punishment has been reduced to something little more than nominal the court not seeming to consider that it might be made in almost every such case that could come before them it is a little singular too that it seems to be confined to cases of ship masters and officers no one ever heard of a sentence for an offense committed on shore being reduced by the court on the ground of the prisoners poverty and the relation in which he may stand to third persons on the contrary it has been thought that the certainty of that disgrace and suffering will be brought upon others as well as himself is one of the chief restraints upon the criminally disposed besides this course works a peculiar hardship in the case of the sailor for if poverty is the point in question the sailor is the poorer of the two and if there is a man on earth who depends upon whole limbs and an unbroken spirit for support it is the sailor he too has friends to whom his hard earnings may be of relief and whose hearts will bleed at any cruelty or indignity practiced upon him yet i never knew this side of the case to be once adverted to in these arguments addressed to the leniency of the court which are now so much in vogue and certainly they are never allowed a moment's consideration when a sailor is on trial for revolt or for an injury done to an officer not withstanding the many difficulties which lie in a semen's way in a court of justice presuming that they will be modified in time there would be little to complain of where it not for these two appeals it is no cause of complaint the testimony of semen against their officers is viewed with suspicion and that great allowances is made for combinations and exaggeration on the contrary it is the judge's duty to charge the jury on these points strongly but there is reason for objection when after a strict cross examination of witnesses after the arguments of counsel and the judges charge a verdict is found against the master that the court should allow the practice of hearing appeals to its lenity supported solely by evidence of the captain's good conduct when on shore especially where the case is one in which no evidence but that of sailors could have been brought against the accused and then on this ground and on the invariable claims of the wife and family be induced to cut down essentially the penalty imposed by a statute made expressly for masters and officers of merchant men and for no one else there are many particulars connected with the manning of vessels the provisions given to crews and the treatment of them while at sea upon which there might be a good deal said but as i have for the most part remarked upon them as they came up in the course of my narrative i will offer nothing further now except in the single point of the manner of shipping men this it is well known is usually left entirely to shipping masters and is a cause of a great deal of difficulty which might be remedied by the captain or owner if he has any knowledge of semen attending to it personally one of the members of the firm to which our ship belonged mr. Sturges had been himself a master of a vessel and generally selected the crew from a number sent down to him from the shipping office in this way he almost always had healthy serviceable unrespectable men for anyone who has seen much of sailors can tell pretty well at first sight by a man's dress countenance and department what he would be on board ship this same gentleman was also in the habit of seeing the crew together and speaking to them previously to their sailing on the day before our ship sailed while the crew were getting their chest and clothes on board he went down to the folks who spoke to them about the voyage the clothing they would need and provision he had made for them and saw that they had a lamp and a few other conveniences if owners or masters would generally take the same pains they would often save their crews a good deal of inconvenience besides creating a sense of satisfaction and gratitude which makes a voyage begin under good auspices and goes far toward keeping up a better state of feeling throughout its continuance it only remains now for me to speak of the associated public efforts which have been making of late years for the good of semen a far more agreeable task than that of finding fault even where fault there is the exertions of the general association called the american semen's friend society and of the other smaller societies throughout the union have been a true blessing to the semen and been fair in course of time to change the whole nature the circumstances in which he is placed and give him a new name as well as a new character these associations have taken hold in the right way and aimed both at making the sailors life more comfortable and credible and at giving him spiritual instruction connected with these efforts the spread of temperance among semen by means of societies called in their own nautical language windward anchor societies and the distribution of books the establishment of sailors homes where they can be comfortably and cheaply boarded live quietly and decently and be in the way of religious services reading and conversation also the institution of saving banks for semen the distribution of tracks and bibles are all means which are silently doing a great work for this class of men these societies make the religious instruction of semen their prominent object if this is gained there is no fear but that all other things necessary will be added unto them a sailor never becomes interested in religion without immediately learning to read if he did not know how before and regular habits for handedness if I may use the word in worldly affairs and ours reclaimed from indolence and vice which follow in the wake of the converted man make it sure that he will instruct himself on the knowledge necessary and suitable to his calling the religious change is the great object if this is secured there is no fear but that knowledge of things of the world will come fast enough with this sailor as with all other men in fact the cultivation of the intellect and the spread of what is commonly called useful knowledge while religious instruction is neglected is little else than changing an ignorant center into an intellectual and powerful one that sailor upon whom of all others the preaching of the cross is least likely to have effect is the one whose understanding has been cultivated while his heart has been left to its own devices I fully believe that those effort to which have their end in the intellectual cultivation of the sailor and giving him scientific knowledge putting it in his power to read everything without securing first of all a right heart which shall guide him in judgment and giving him political information and interesting him in newspapers an end in the furtherance of which he is exhibited at ladies fairs and public meetings and complimented for his gallantry and generosity are all doing harm which the labors of many faithful men cannot undo the establishment of Bethels in most of our own seaports and in many foreign ports frequented by our vessels where the gospels regularly preached and the opening of sailor's homes which I have before mentioned where there are usually religious services and other good influences are doing a vast still in this cause but it is to be remembered that the sailor's home is on the deep nearly all his life must be spent on board ship and to secure a religious influence there should be the great object the distribution of bibles and tracks into cabins and folk souls will do much toward this there is nothing which will gain a sailor's attention sooner an interest to him more deeply than attract especially one which contains a story it is difficult to engage their attention in mere essays and arguments but the simplest and shortest story in which home is spoken of kind friends a praying mother or sister a sudden death and the like often touches the hearts of the roughest and most abandoned the bible is to the sailor a sacred book it may lie in the bottom of his chest voyage after voyage but he never treats it with positive disrespect I never knew but one sailor who doubted its being the inspired word of God and he was one who had received uncommonly good education except that he had been brought up without an early religious influence the most abandoned man of our crew when Sunday morning asked one of the boys to lend him his Bible the boy said he would but was afraid he would make sport of it no said the man I don't make sport of God almighty this is a fueling general among sailors and is a good foundation for religious influence a still greater gain is made whenever by means of a captain who is interested in the eternal welfare of those under his command there can be secured the performance of regular religious exercises and the exertion on the side of religion of that mighty influence which a captain possesses for good or for evil there are occurrences at sea which he may turn to great account a sudden death the apprehension of danger or they escape from it and the like and all the calls for gratitude and faith besides the state of things alters the whole current of feeling between the crew and their commander his authority assumes more of a parental character and kinder feelings exist Godwin though an infidel in one of his novels describing the relation in which a tutor stood to his pupil says that the conviction the tutor was under that he and his ward were both alike awaiting a state of eternal happiness or misery and that they must appear together before the same judgment seat operated so upon his naturally morose disposition as to produce a feeling of kindness and tenderness toward his ward which nothing else could have caused such must be the effect upon the relation of master and common semen there are now many vessels selling under such auspices in which great good is done yet I never happened to fall in with one of them I did not hear a prayer made a chapter read in public nor see anything approaching to a religious service for two years and a quarter there were in the course of the voyage many incidences which made for the time serious impressions upon our minds and which might have been turned to our good but there being no one to use the opportunity and no services the regular return of which might have kept something of the feeling of aliveness the advantage of them was lost to some perhaps forever the good which a single religious captain may do can hardly be calculated in the first place as I have said a kinder state of feeling exists on board the ship there is no profanity allowed and the men are not called by any appropriate names which is a great thing with sailors the Sabbath is observed this gives them a day of rest even if they pass it in no other way such a captain too will not allow a sailor on board his ship to remain unable to read his bible and the books given to him and will usually instruct those who need it in writing arithmetic and navigation since he has a good deal of time on his hands which he can easily employ in such a manner he will also have regular religious services and in fact by the power of his example and where it can judiciously be done by exercise of his authority will give a character to the ship and all on board in foreign ports the ship is known by her captain for there being no general rules in the merchant service each master may adopt a plan of his own it is to be remembered too that there are in most ships boys of a tender age whose characters for life are forming as well as old men whose lives must be drawing to a close the greater part of sailors die at sea and when they find their end approaching if it does not as is often the case come without warning they cannot as on shore send for a clergyman or some religious friend to speak to them of that hope in a savior which they have neglected if not despised through life but if the little hull does not contain such a one within its compass they must be left without human aid in their great extremity when such commanders in such ships as I have just described shall become more numerous the hope of the friends of semen will be greatly strengthened and it is encouraging to remember that the efforts among common sailors will soon rise up such a class for those of them who are brought under these influences will inevitably be the ones to succeed to the places of trust and authority if there is on earth an instance where a little leaven may leaven the whole lump it is that of the religious ship master it is to the progress of this work among semen that we must look with the greatest confidence for the remedying of those numerous minor evils and abuses that we so often hear of it will raise the character of sailors both as individuals and as a class it will give weight to their testimony in courts of justice secure better usage to them on board ship and add comforts to their lives on shore and at sea there are always laws that can be passed to remove temptations from their way and to help them in their progress and some changes in jurisdiction of the lower courts to prevent delays may and probably will be made but generally speaking more especially in things which concern the discipline of ships we had better labor in this great work and view with caution the proposal of new laws and arbitrary regulations remembering that most of those concerned in making them are necessarily but little qualified to judge of their operation without any formal dedication of my narrative to that body of men of whose common life it is intended to be a picture i have yet borne them constantly in mind during its preparation i cannot but trust that those of them into his hands it may chance to fall we'll find in it that which shall render any professions of sympathy and good wishes on my part unnecessary and i will take the liberty in parting with my reader who has gone down with us to the ocean and laid his hand upon its main to commend to his kind wishes and to the benefit of his efforts that class of men with whom for a time my law was cast i wish the rather to do this since i feel that whatever attention this book may gain and whatever favor it may find i shall owe almost entirely to that interest in the sea and those who follow it which is so easily excited in us all end of part two original concluding chapter