 22 Saturday, July 18, this day, sailed the Mexican hermaphrodite brig Phegeo for San Blas and Mazatán. This was the brig which was driven ashore at San Pedro on a south-easter and had been lying at San Diego to repair and take in her cargo. The owner of her had a good deal of difficulty with the government about the duties, etc., and her sailing had been delayed for several weeks, but everything having been arranged she got under way with a light breeze, and was floating out of the harbor when two horsemen came dashing down to the beach at full speed, and tried to find a boat to put off after her, but there being none at hand, they offered a handful of silver to any canaca who would swim off and take a letter on board. One of the canacas, an active, well-made young fellow, instantly threw off everything but his duck trousers, and putting the letter into his hat, swam off after the vessel. Fortunately the wind was very light, and the vessel was going slowly, so that, although she was nearly a mile off when he started, he gained on her rapidly. He went through the water leaving awake like a small steamboat. I certainly never saw such swimming before. They saw him coming from the deck, but did not heave too, suspecting the nature of his errand. The wind continuing light, he swam alongside and got on board, and delivered his letter. The captain read the letter, told the canaca there was no answer, and giving him a glass of brandy, left him to jump overboard and find the best of his way to the shore. The canaca swam in for the nearest point of land, and in about an hour made his appearance at the hide-house. He did not seem at all fatigued. He had made three or four dollars, got a glass of brandy, and was in high spirits. The brig kept on her course, and the government officers, who had come down to forbid her sailing, went back, each with something very like a flea in his ear, having depended upon extorting a little more money from the owner. It was nearly three months since the alert arrived at Santa Barbara, and we begin to expect her daily. About half a mile behind the hide-houses was a high hill, and every afternoon, as soon as we had done our work, some of us walked up to see if there was a sail in sight, coming down before the regular trades. Day after day we went up the hill, and came back disappointed. I was anxious for her arrival, for I had been told by letter that the owners in Boston at the request of my friends had written to Captain Thompson to take me on board the alert, in case she returned to the United States before the pilgrim. And I, of course, wished to know whether the order had been received, and what was the destination of the ship. One year, more or less, might be of small consequence to others, but it was everything to me. It was now just a year since we sailed from Boston, and at the shortest no vessel could expect to get away under eight or nine months, which would make our absence two years and all. This would be pretty long, but would not be fatal. It would not necessarily be decisive of my future life. But one year more might settle the matter. I might be a sailor for life. And although I had pretty well made up my mind to it before I had my letters from home, yet as soon as an opportunity was held out to me of returning, and the prospect of another kind of life was open to me, my anxiety to return, and at least to have the chance of deciding upon my course for myself, was beyond measure. Besides that, I wished to be equal to either fortune, and to qualify myself for an officer's birth, and a hidehouse with no place to learn seamanship in. I had become experienced in hide curing, and everything went on smoothly, and I had many opportunities to become acquainted with the people, and much leisure for reading and studying navigation. Yet practical seamanship could only be got onboard ship. Therefore I determined to ask to be taken onboard the ship when she arrived. By the first of August, we finished curing all our hides, stored them away, cleaned out our vats, in which ladder work we spent two days, up to our knees in mud and sediments of six months hide curing, in a stench which would drive a donkey from his breakfast, and got all in readiness for the arrival of the ship, and had another leisure interval of three or four weeks. I spent these as usual in reading, writing, studying, making, and mending my clothes, and getting my wardrobe in complete readiness in case I should go onboard the ship, and in fishing, ranging the woods with the dogs, and in occasional visits to the presidio and mission. A good deal of my time was passed in taking care of a little puppy, which I had selected from thirty-six that were born within three days of one another at our house. He was a fine, promising pup, with four white paws, and on the rest of his body, a dark brown. I built a little kennel for him, and kept him fastened there away from the other dogs, feeding and disciplining him myself. In a few weeks I brought him into complete subjection, and he grew nicely, was much attached to me, and bade fair to be one of the leaning dogs on the beach. I called him Bravo, and all I regretted at the thought of leaving the beach was partying with him in the canacas. Day after day we went up the hill, but no ship was to be seen, and we began to form all sorts of conjectures as to her whereabouts, and the theme of every evening's conversation at the different houses and in our different paseos on the beach was the ship, where she could be, had she been to San Francisco, and how many hides she would bring, et cetera, et cetera. Tuesday, August 25th. This morning the officer in charge of our house went off beyond the point of fishing in a small canoe, with two canacas, and we were sitting quietly in our room at the hide house when, just before noon, we heard a complete yell of, sail home! Breaking out from all parts of the beach at once. From the canacas oven to the roses hide house. In an instant everyone was out of his house, and there was a tall, gallant ship with royals and skis all set, bending over before the strong afternoon breeze, and coming rapidly round the point. Her yards were braced sharp up, every cell was set, and drew well. The stars and stripes were flying from her mizzen peak, and having the tide in her favor she came up like a racehorse. It was nearly six months since the new vessel had entered San Diego, and of course, everyone was wide awake. She certainly made a fine appearance. Her light cells were taken in, as she passed the low sandy tongue of land, and cluing up her head cells, she rounded hamsomely to under her mizzen topsoil, and let go her anchor at about a cable's length from the shore. In a few minutes the topsoil yards were manned in all through the topsoil's furrowed at once. From the four-top gallant yard the men slid down the stay to furrow the jib, and from the mizzen top gallant yard, by the stay, into the main top, and thence to the yard, and the men on the topsoil yards came down the lifts to the yard arms of the courses. The sails were furrowed with great care. The bunts triced up by jiggers, and the jibs stowed in the cloth. The royal yards were then struck, tackles got upon the yard arms and stays, the long boat hoisted out, a large anchor carried a stern, and the ship moored. This was the alert. The gig was lowered away from the quarter, and a boat's crew of fine lads between the ages of 14 and 18 pulled the captain ashore. The gig was a light whaleboat, handsomely painted, and fitted up with cushions and tiller ropes in the stern sheets. We immediately attacked the boat's crew, and got very thick with them in a few minutes. We had much to ask about Boston, their passage out, etc., and they were very curious to know about the kind of life we were leading upon the beach. One of them offered to exchange with me, which was just what I wanted, and we had only to get the permission of the captain. After dinner the crew began discharging their hides, and as we had nothing to do at the hide houses, we were ordered aboard to help them. I had now my first opportunity of seeing the ship which I hoped was to be my home for the next year. She looked as well on board as she did from without. Her decks were wide and roomy, there being no poop or house on deck, which disfigures the after part of most of our vessels. Flushed for an aft in as white as flax, which the crew told us was from constant use of holy stones. There was no foolish gilding in gingerbread work to take the eye of landsmen and passengers, but everything was ship shape. There was no rust, no dirt, no rigging hanging slack, no fag ends of ropes and irish pendants aloft, and the yards were square to a tee by lifts and braces. The mate was a hearty fellow with a roaring voice and always wide awake. He was a man every inch of him, as the sailor said, and though a bit of a horse and a hard customer, yet he was generally liked by the crew. There was also a second and third mate, a carpenter, sailmaker, steward, and cook, in twelve hands before the mast. She had on boarded several thousand hides, which she had collected at the winderd and also horns and tallow. All these would begin discharging from both ganglays at once into the two boats, the second mate having charged the launch, and the third mate of the penis. For several days we were employed in this way, until all the hides were taken out. When the crew began taking in ballast, and we returned to our old work, hide curing. Saturday, August 29th, arrived, Brigh Catalina from the winderd. Sunday, August 30th. This was the first Sunday that the alerts crew had been at San Diego, and of course they were all for going up to see the town. The Indians came down early with horses to let for the day, and those of the crew who could obtain liberty went off to the Presidio in mission, and did not return until night. I had seen enough of San Diego, and went on board and spent the day with some of the crew, whom I found quietly at work in the folk sole, either mending and washing their clothes, or reading and writing. They told me that the ship stopped at Caleo on the passage out, and lay there three weeks. She had a passage of a little over eighty days from Boston to Caleo, which is one of the shortest on record. There they left the brandy wine frigate, and some smaller American ships of war, and the frigate blonde, and a French seventy-four. From Caleo they came directly to California, and had visited every port on the coast, including San Francisco. The folk sole in which they lived was large, tolerably well lighted by bullseyes, and being kept perfectly clean had quite a comfortable appearance. At least it was far better than the little, black, dirty hole in which I had lived so many months on board the pilgrim. By the regulations of the ship, the folk sole was cleaned out every morning, and the crew, being very neat, kept it clean by some regulations of their own, such as having a large spit box always under the steps in between the bits, and obliging every man to hang up his wet clothes, etc. In addition to this, it was wholly stoned every Saturday morning. In the after part of the ship was a handsome cabin, a dining room, and a trade room fitted out with shelves, and furnished with all sorts of goods. In the after part of the ship was a handsome cabin. A dining room and a trade room fitted out with shelves, and furnished with all sorts of goods. Between these and the folk sole was a between dex, as high as the gun deck of a frigate, being six feet and a half under the beam. These between dex were wholly stoned regularly, and kept in the most perfect order. The carpenter's bench and tools being in one part, the cell makers in another, the boss's locker, with the spare rigging in a third. A part of the crew slept here, and hammocks swung four and a half from the beams, and triced up every morning. The sides of the between dex were clapboarded, the knees and stanchions of iron, and the ladder made to unship. The crew said she was as tight as a drum, and a fine sea boat, her only fault being, that of most fast ships, that she was wet forward. When she was going, as she sometimes would, eight or nine knots on a wind, there would not be a dry spot forward of the gangway. The men told great stories of her sailing, and had entire confidence in her as a lucky ship. She was seven years old, and had always been in the Canton trade, had never met an accident of any consequence, nor made a passage that was not shorter than the average. The third mate, a young boy about 18 years of age, nephew of one of the owners, had been in the ship from a small boy, and believed in the ship, and the chief mate thought as much of her as he would of a wife and family. The ship lay about a week longer in port, when having discharged her cargo and taken in ballast, she prepared to get underway. I now made my application to the captain to go on board. He told me that I could go home in the ship when she sailed, which I knew before, and finding that I wished to be on board while she was on the coast, said he had no objection, if I could find one of my own age to exchange with me for the time. This I easily accomplished, for they were glad to change the scene for a few months on shore, and, moreover, escape the winter and the south-easters. And I went on board the next day, with my chest and hammock, and found myself once more afloat. End of chapter 22, chapter 23, part one, 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 23, part one, New Ship and Shipmates. Tuesday, September 8th. This was my first day's duty on board the ship, and though a sailor's life is a sailor's life wherever it may be, yet I found everything very different here from the customs of the brig program. After all hands were called at day brig, three minutes and a half were allowed for the men to dress and come on deck, and if any were longer than that, they were sure to be overhauled by the mate, who was always on deck and making himself heard all over the ship. The head pump was then rigged, and the decks washed down by the second and third mates. The chief mate walking the quarter deck and keeping general supervision, but not daining to touch a bucket or a brush. Inside and out, for and aft, upper deck and between decks, steerage and folk sole, rail, bulwarks and waterways, were washed, scrubbed, and scraped with brooms and canvas. And the decks were wet and sanded all over, and then holy stone. The holy stone is a large soft stone, smooth on the bottom with long ropes attached to each end, by which the crew keep it sliding four and aft over the wet sanded decks. Smaller hand stones, which the sailors called prayer books, are used to scrub in among the crevices in narrow places where large holy stones will not go. An hour or two we were kept at this work, when the head pump was manned and all the sand washed off the decks and sides. Then came squabs and squilgeys, and after the decks were dry, each one went to his particular morning job. There were five boats belonging to the ship, launch, pinnace, jolly boat, larbored quarter boat, and gig. Each of which had a coxswain who had charge of it, and was answerable for the order and cleanliness of it. The rest of the cleaning was divided among the crew, one having the brass and composition work about the capstan, another the bell, which was of brass and kept as bright as a gilt button, a third the harness cask, another the main rope stanchions, others the steps of the folks on hatchways, which were hauled up in holy stone. Each of these jobs must be finished before breakfast, and in the meantime, the rest of the crew filled the scuttled butt, and the cook scraped his kids, wooden tubs out of which sailors eat, and polished the hoops, and placed them before the galley to wait inspection. When the decks were dry, the Lord Paramount made his appearance on the quarter deck, and took a few turns, eight bells were struck, and all hands went to breakfast. Half an hour was allowed for breakfast, when all hands were called again. The kids, pots, bread bags, et cetera, stowed away. And this morning, preparations were made for getting underway. We paid out the chain by which we swung, hoeve in on the other, catted the anchor, and hoeve short on the first. This work was done in shorter time than was usual on board the brig. For though everything was more than twice as large and heavy, the cat-block being as much as a man could lift, and the chain as large as three of the pilgrims, yet there was plenty of room to move about in, more discipline and system, more men, and more goodwill. Each seemed ambitious to do his best. Officers and men knew their duty, and all went well. As soon as she was hoeve short, the mate on the folksail gave the order to loose the sails, and in an instant, all sprang into the rigging, up the shrouds and out on the yards, scrambling by one another, the first up the best fellow, cast off the yard arm gaskets and butt gaskets, and one man remained on each yard, holding the butt jigger with a turn around the tie, all ready to let go. While the rest laid down to man the sheets and halyards, the mate then hailed the yards. Already the cross-jackyards, et cetera, et cetera, and aye aye sir, being returned from each, the word was given to let go, and in the twinkling of an eye, the ship which had shown nothing but her bare yards was covered with her loose canvas from the royal mastheads to the decks. All then came down, except one man in each top, to overhaul the rigging, and going to the masthead at once, the larbored watch hoisting the four, the starbored watch the main, and five light hands of whom I was one, picked from the two watches the mizzen. The yards were then trimmed, the anchor weighed, the cap block hooked, the fall stretched out, manned by all hands in the cook, and the anchor brought to the head with cheerly men, in full chorus. The ship being no under way, the light sails were set one after another, and she was under full sail before she had passed the sandy point. The four royal, which fell to my lot, as I was in the mate's watch, was more than twice as large as that of the pilgrim, and though I could handle the briggs easily, I found my hands full with this, especially as there were no jacks to the ship. Everything being for neatness, and nothing left for Jack to hold on by but his eyelids. As soon as we were beyond the point, and all sell out, the order was given, and the crews said that, ever since they had been on the coast, they had had watch in watch, while going from port to port. And in fact, all things showed that, though strict discipline was kept, and the utmost was required of every man in the way of his duty. Yet on the whole, there was good usage on board. Each one knew that he must be a man, and show himself such went at his duty. Yet all were satisfied with the treatment, and a contented crew, agreeing with one another and finding no fault, was a contrast indeed with the small, hard use, dissatisfied, grumbling, desponding crew of the pilgrim. It being the turn of our watch to go below, the men set themselves to work, mending their clothes, and doing other little things for themselves. And I, having got my wardrobe in complete order at San Diego, had nothing to do but to read. I accordingly overhauled the chest of the crew, but found nothing that suited me exactly, until one of the men said that he had a book which told all about a great high woman at the bottom of his chest. And producing it, I found to my surprise and joy that it was nothing else than bowlers Paul Clifford. I seized it immediately and going to my hammock, lay there, swinging and reading until the watch below was out. The between decks clear, the hatch was open, a cool breeze blowing through them, the ship under easy way, everything's comfortable. I had just got well into the story when eight bells were struck, and we were all ordered to dinner. After dinner came our watch on deck for four hours, and at four o'clock I went below again, turned into my hammock, and read until the dog watch. As lights were not allowed after eight o'clock, there was no reading in the night watch. Having light, winds, and calms, we were three days on passage, and each watch below during the daytime I spent in the same manner until I had finished my book. I shall never forget the enjoyment I derived from it. To come across anything with the slightest claims to literary merit was so unusual that this was a feast to me. The brilliancy of the book, the succession of capital hits, the lively and characteristic sketches kept me in a constant state of pleasing sensations. It was far too good for a sailor. I could not expect such fine times to last long. While on deck the regular work of the ship went on. The sailmaker and carpenter worked between decks, and the crew had their work to do upon the rigging, drawing yarns, making spun yarn, et cetera, and as usual, in merchant men. The night watches were much more pleasant than on board the pilgrim. There were so few in a watch that one being at the wheel and another on the lookout. There was no one left to talk with. But here we had seven in a watch so that we had long yarns in abundance. After two or three night watches, I became well acquainted with the larbored watch. The sailmaker was headman of the watch and was generally considered the most experienced seaman on board. He was a thoroughbred old man of war's man, had been at sea 22 years in all kinds of vessels, men of war, privateers, slavers, and merchant men, everything except whalers, which a thorough man of war or merchant seaman looks down upon and will always steer clear of if he can. He had, of course, been in most parts of the world and was remarkable for drawing a longbow. His yarns frequently stretched through a watch and kept all hands awake. They were amusing from their improbability and, indeed, he never expected to be believed, but spun them merely for amusement. And as he had some humor and a good supply of man-a-war slang and sailor's salt phrases, he always made fun. Next to him in age and experience, and, of course, in standing in the watch, was an Englishman named Harris, of whom I shall have more to say hereafter. Then came two or three Americans who had been the common run of European and South American voyages and one who had been in a spouter, and, of course, had all the welling stories to himself. Last of all was a broad-backed, thick-headed Cape Cod boy, who had been in macro-skooners and was making his first voyage in a square-rigged vessel. Sailors call men from any part of the coast of Massachusetts south of Boston Cape Codmen. He was born in Hingham, and, of course, was called Bucketmaker. The other watch was composed of about the same number. A tall, fine-looking Frenchman with coal-black whiskers and curly hair, a first-rate seamen named John, one name is enough for a sailor, was the head man of the watch. Then came two Americans, one of whom had been a dissipated young man of some property and respectable connections and was reduced to duck trousers and monthly wages. A German, an English lad named Ben, who belonged on the mizzen top-soul yard with me, and was a good sailor for his years, and two Boston boys just from the public schools. The carpenter sometimes mustered in the starbird watch and was an old sea dog, a swede by birth and accounted the best helmsman in the ship. This was our ship's company, besides Cook and Steward, who were blacks, three mates, and the captain. The second day out, the wind drew ahead and we had to beat up the coast so that, in tacking ship, I could see the regulations of the vessel. Instead of going wherever was most convenient and running from place to place wherever work was to be done, each man had his station. A regular tacking and wearing bill was made out. The chief mate commanded on the folk-soul and had charged the head-souls and the forward part of the ship. Two of the best men in the ship, the sell-maker from our watch and John, the Frenchman from the other, worked the folk-soul. The third mate commanded in the waist and with the carpenter and one man worked the main tack and bowline. The cook, ex officio, the foresheet and the steward the main. The second mate had charged the after-yards and let go of the lee for and main braces. I was stationed at the weather cross-jack braces, three other light-hands at the lee, one boy at the spanker-sheet and guy, a man and a boy at the main top-soul, top gallant and royal braces, and all the rest of the crew, men and boys, tallied on to the main brace. Everyone here knew his station, must be there when all hands were called to put the ship about and was answerable for the ropes committed to him. Each man's rope must be let go and hauled in at the order, properly made fast and neatly coiled away when the ship was about. As soon as all hands are at their stations, the captain, who stands on the weather-side of the quarter-deck, makes a sign to the man at the wheel to put it down and calls out, Helm's a lee, Helm's a lee, answers the mate on the folk-soul and the head-sheets are let go. Raise tacks and sheets, says the captain. Tacks and sheets is passed forward and the fore-tack and main-sheets are let go. The next thing is to haul taut for a swing. The weather cross-jack braces and the lee main braces are belayed together upon two pins and ready to be let go and the opposite braces are hauled taut. Main top-soul haul, shouts the captain. The braces are let go and if he has chosen his time well, the yards swing round like a top but if he is too late or too soon, it is like drawing teeth. The after-yards are then braced up and belayed. The main sheet hauled aft, the spanker eased over to Leward and the men from the braces stand by the head-yards. Let go and haul, says the captain. The second mate let's go the weather fore braces and the men haul in to Leward. The mate on the folk-soul looks out for the head-yards. Well, the fore-top-soul yards. Well, the fore-top-soul yard. Top-gallant yards, well. Royal yard too much, haul in to Wendard. So, well that, well all. Then the starboard-watch board the main tack and the lower-board-watch lay forward and board the fore-tack and haul down the jib sheet, clapping a tackle upon it if it blows very fresh. The after-yards are then trimmed, the captain generally looking out for them himself. Well, the craw-jack-yard. Small pull the main-top-gallant-yard. Well, that. Well, the mizzen-top-yard. Cross-jack-yards all well. Well all half, taut to Wendard. Everything being now trimmed in an order, each man coils up the rigging at his own station and the order is given. Go below the watch. During the last 24 hours of the passage, we beat off and on the land, making a tack about once in four hours, so that I had sufficient opportunity to observe the working of the ship. And certainly it took no more men to brace about this ship's lower yards, which were more than fifty feet square than it did those of the Pilgrim, which were not much more than half the size. So much depends upon the manner in which the braces run and the state of the blocks. And Captain Wilson of the Ayakucho, who was afterwards a passenger with us upon a trip to Wendard, said he had no doubt that our ship worked two men lighter than his brake. This light working of the ship was owing to the attention and semen ship of Captain Falcon. He had reaved anew nearly all the running rigging of the ship, getting rid of useless blocks, putting single blocks for double wherever he could, using pendant blocks and adjusting the purchases scientifically. Friday, September 11th. This morning at four o'clock went below, San Pedro Point being about two leagues ahead, and the ship going on under sitting soles. In about an hour we were waked up by the hauling of the chain about decks, and in a few minutes, All hands ahoy! was called. And we were all at work, hauling in and making up the sitting soles, overhauling the chain forward and getting the anchors ready. The Pilgrim is there at anchor, said someone, as we were running about decks, and taking a moment's look over the rail, I saw my old friend, deeply laden, lying at anchor inside of the kelp. In coming to anchor as well as in tacking ship, each one had his station and duty. The light cells were clued up and furled. The courses hauled up and the jibs down. Then came the topsoils in the buttlands, and the anchor let go. As soon as she was well at anchor, All hands lay aloft to furled the topsoils. And this, I soon found, was a great matter on board this ship, for every sailor knows that a vessel is judged of a good deal by the furl over sails. The third mate, cellmaker, and the larbid watch went upon the four topsoil yard, the second mate, carpenter, and the starboard watch upon the main, and I and the English lad and the two Boston boys, and the young Cape Cod man, furled the mizzen topsoil. This sail belonged to us altogether to reef and to furl, and not a man was allowed to come upon our yard. The mate took us under his special care, frequently making us furl the sail over three or four times, until we got the butt up to a perfect cone and the hull sail without a wrinkle. As soon as each sail was hauled up and the butt made, the jigger was bent on to the slack of the buttlands, and the butt triced up on deck. The mate then took his place between the night heads to twig the fore, and on the windlass to twig the main, and at the foot of the main mast for the mizzen, and if anything was wrong, too much bunt on one side, clues too taut or too slack, or any sail abath the yard, the hull must be dropped again. When all was right, the bunts were triced up well, the yard-armed gaskets passed, so as not to leave a wrinkle forward of the yard. Short gaskets with turns close together. When all was right, the bunts were triced up well, the yard-armed gaskets passed, so as not to leave a wrinkle forward of the yard. Short gaskets with turns close together. From the moment of letting go the anchor, when the captain ceases his care of things, the chief mate is the great man. With a voice like a young lion, he was hallowing in all directions, making everything fly, and at the same time, doing everything well. He was quite a contrast to the worthy, quiet, unobtrusive mate of the pilgrim. Not a more estuous man, perhaps, but a far better mate of a vessel. And the entire change in Captain Thompson's conduct, since he took command of the ship, was owing no doubt in a great measure to this fact. If the chief officer wants force, discipline slackens. Everything gets out of joint, and the captain interferes continually. That makes a difficulty between them, which encourages the crew, and the whole ends in a three-sided quarrel. But Mr. Brown, a marblehead man, wanted no help from anybody, took everything into his own hands, and was more likely to encroach upon the authority of the master than to need any spurring. Captain Thompson gave his directions to the mate in private, and, except in coming to anchor, getting under way, tacking, reefing topsoils, and other, all-hands work, seldom appeared in person. This is the proper state of things, and while this lasts, and there is a good understanding after, everything will go on well. Having furled all the sails, the royal yards were next to be sent down. The English line and myself sent down the main, which was larger than the pilgrim's main top-gallant yard, two more light-hands, the four, and one boy, the mizzen. This order we kept while on the coast, sending them up and down every time we came in and went out of port. They were all tripped and lowered together, the main on the starboard side and the four and mizzen to port. No sooner was she all snug than tackles were got up on the yards and stays, and the long boat and penis srove out. The swinging booms were then guide out, and the boats made fast by jeshwarps and everything in harbor style. After breakfast, the hatches were taken off and everything got ready to receive hides from the pilgrim. All day, boats were passing and repassing until we had taken her hides from her and left her in ballast trim. These hides made but little show in our hold, though they had loaded the pilgrim down to the water's edge. This changing of the hides settled the question of the destination of the two vessels, which had been one of some speculation with us. We were to remain in the ward ports while the pilgrim was to sell the next morning for San Francisco. After we had knocked off work and cleared up decks for the night, my friend Stinson came on board and spent an hour with me in our berth between decks. The pilgrim's crew envied me my place on board the ship and seemed to think that I'd got a little of the winter to them, especially in the manner of going home first. Stinson was determined to go home in the alert by begging or buying. If Captain Thompson would not let him come on other terms, he would purchase an exchange with someone of the crew. The prospect of another year after the alert should sell was rather too much of the monkey. About seven o'clock the mate came down into the steerage and fine-trimmed for fun. Roused the boys out of the berth, turned up the carpenter with his fiddle, sent the steward with lights to put in the between decks and set all hands to dancing. The between decks were high enough to allow of jumping and being clear and white from holy stoning made a good dancing hall. Some of the pilgrim's crew were in the folk's hall and they all turned to and had a regular sailor's shuffle till eight bells. The Cape Cod Boy could dance the true fisherman's jig, barefooted, knocking with his heels and slapping the decks with his bare feet, in time with the music. This was a favorite amusement of the mates who used to stand at the steerage door looking on and if the boys would not dance, haze them round with a rope's end, much to the entertainment of the men. The next morning, according to the orders of the agent, the pilgrim set sail for the wintered to be gone three or four months. She got underway with no fuss and came so near us as to throw a letter on board. Captain Falcon standing at the tiller himself and steering her as he would a mackerel smack. When Captain Thompson was in command of the pilgrim, there was as much preparation and ceremony as there would be in getting a 74 underway. Captain Falcon was a sailor, every inch of him. He knew what a ship was and was as much at home in one as a cobbler in his stall. I wanted no better proof of this than the opinion of the ship's crew, for they had been six months under his command and knew him thoroughly. And if sailors allow their captain to be a good seaman, you may be sure he is one, for that is a thing they are not usually ready to admit. To find fault with the seamanship of the captain is a crew's reserve store for grumbling. End of chapter 23, part one. Chapter 23, part two, 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 23, part two, New Ship and Shipmates. After the pilgrim left us, we lay three weeks at San Pedro from the 11th of September until the 2nd of October, engaged in the usual port duties of landing cargo, taking off hides, et cetera, et cetera. These duties were much easier and went on much more agreeably than on board the pilgrim. The more the merrier is the sailor's maximum. And by a division of labor, a boat's crew of a dozen could take off all the hides brought down in a day, without much trouble. And on shore, as well as on board, a goodwill and no discontent or grumbling make everything go well. The officer, too, who usually went with us, the third mate was a pleasant young fellow and made no unnecessary trouble, so that we generally had a sociable time and were glad to be relieved from the restraint of the ship. While here, I often thought of the miserable, gloomy weeks I had spent in this dull place in the brig, discontent and hard usage on board, and forehands to do all the work on shore. Give me a big ship. There is more room, better outfit, better regulations, more life, and a regular gig's crew. A light whale boat, handsomely painted and fitted out with the stern seats, yoke and tiller ropes hung on the starboard quarter and was used as the gig. The youngest lad in the ship, a Boston boy about 14 years old, was coxswain of this boat, and had the entire charge of her to keep her clean and have her in readiness to go and come at any hour. Four light-hands of about the same size and age of whom I was one, formed her crew. Each had his oar and seat numbered, and we were obliged to be in our places, have our oars scraped white, our thulpins in, and the fenders over the side. The bowman had charged the boat-hook and painter in the coxswain of the rudder, yoke, and stern sheets. Our duty was to carry the captain and agent about and passengers off and on, which last was no trifling duty. As the people on shore have no boats and every purchaser, from the boy who buys his pair of shoes to the trader who buys his casks and bales, was to be brought off and taken ashore in our boat. Some days, when people were coming and going fast, we were in the boat pulling off and on all day long, with hardly time for our meals, making, as we lay nearly three miles off shore, from 30 to 40 miles rowing in a day. Still, we thought at the best berth in the ship, for when the gig was employed, we had nothing to do with the cargo, except with small bundles which the passengers took with them, and no hides to carry. Besides, we had the opportunity of seeing everybody, making acquaintances, and hearing the news. Unless the captain or agent was in the boat, we had no officer with us and often had fine times with the passengers, who were always willing to talk and joke with us. Frequently, too, we were obliged to wait several hours on shore when we would haul the boat up on the beach and leaving one to watch her go to the nearest house or spend the time in strolling about the beach, picking up shells or playing hopscotch and other games on the hard sand. The others of the crew never left the ship, except for bringing heavy goods and taking off hides. And though we were always in the water, the surf hardly leaving us a dry thread from morning till night, yet we were young and the climate was good, and we thought it much better than the quiet, humdrum drag and pull on our ship. We made the acquaintance of nearly half California. For besides carrying everybody in our boat, men, women, and children, all the messages, letters, and light packages went by us. And being known by our dress, we found a ready reception everywhere. At San Pedro, we had none of this amusement. For there being but one house in the place, there was nothing to see and no company. All the variety that I had was riding once a week to the nearest rancho to order a bullock down to the ship. Note. This was Sepulveda's rancho, where there was a fight during our war with Mexico in 1846 between some United States troops and the Mexicans, under Don Andreas Peco. End note. The brave Catalina came in from San Diego and being bound to Wunderd, we both got underway at the same time for a trial of speed up to Santa Barbara, a distance of about 80 miles. We hove up and got under sail about 11 o'clock at night with a light land breeze which died away towards morning, leaving us becalmed only a few miles from our anchoring place. The Catalina, being a small vessel of less than half our size, put out sweeps and got a boat ahead, pulled out to sea during the night so that she had the sea breeze earlier and stronger than we did and we had the modification of seeing her standing at the coast with a fine breeze. The sea all ruffled about her while we were becalmed in chore. When the sea breeze died away, she was nearly out of sight and towards the latter part of the afternoon, the regular Northwest wind setting in fresh, we braced sharp upon it, took a pull at every sheet, tack and halyard and stood after her in fine style, our ship being very good upon a top bowline. We had nearly five hours of splendid sailing, beating up to windered by long stretches in and offshore, and evidently gaining upon the Catalina at every tack. When this breeze left us, we were so near as to count the painted ports on her side. Fortunately, the wind died away when we were on our inward tack and she on her outward, so we were in shore and caught the land breeze first, which came off upon our quarter and upon the middle of the first watch. All hands were turned up and we set all sail to the skisles and royal studding soles and with these, we glided quietly through the water, leaving the Catalina, which could not spread so much canvas as we gradually astern. And by daylight, we're off Santa Buena Ventura and our competitor nearly out of sight. The sea breeze however favored her again while we were becalmed under the headland and laboring slowly along and she was abreast of us by noon. Thus we continued ahead astern and abreast of each other, alternately now far out to sea and again close in under the shore. On the third morning, we came into the great bay of Santa Barbara two hours behind the brig and thus lost the bet. Though with the race had been to the point we should have beaten her by five or six hours. This however settled the relative selling of the vessels for it was admitted that although she, being small and light, could gain upon us in very light winds, yet whenever there was breeze enough to set us a going, we walked away from her like hauling in a line and in beating to Winderd, which is the best trial of a vessel, had much the advantage. Sunday, October 4th. This was the day of our arrival and somehow or other our captains seemed to manage not only to sail but to come and to port on a Sunday. The main reason for sailing on Sunday is not as many people suppose because it is thought a lucky day but because it is a leisure day. During the six days the crew are employed upon the cargo and other ships works and Sunday being their only day of rest, whatever additional work can be thrown into it is so much gain to the owners. This is the reason of our coasters and packets generally sailing on Sunday. Thus it was with us nearly all the time we were on the coast and many of our Sundays were lost entirely to us. The Catholics on short do not as a general thing do regular trading or make journeys on Sunday but the American has no national religion and likes to show the independence of priestcraft by doing as he chooses on the Lord's Day. Santa Barbara looked very much as it did when I left it five months before. The long sand beach with the heavy rollers breaking upon it in a continual roar and the little town embedded on the plain girt by its ample theater of mountains. Day after day the sun shone clear and bright upon the wide bay and the red roofs of the houses. Everything being as still as death the people hardly seeming to earn their sunlight. Daylight was thrown away upon them. We had a few visitors and collected about a hundred hides and every night at sundown the gig was sent ashore to wait for the captain who spent his evenings in the town. We always took our monkey jackets with us and flint and steel and made a fire on the beach with driftwood and the bushes which we pulled from the neighboring thickets and lay down by it on the sand. Sometimes we would stray up to the town if the captain was likely to stay late and pass the time at some of the houses in which we were always well received by the inhabitants. Sometimes earlier and sometimes later the captain came down. When after a good drenching in the surf we went aboard changed our clothes and turned in for the night. Yet not for all the night for there was the anchor watch to stand. This leads me to speak of my watchmate for nine months and taking him all in all the most remarkable man I had ever seen. Tom Harris. An hour every night while lying in port Harris and I had the deck to ourselves and walking for an aft night after night for months. I learned his character and history and more about foreign nations the habits of different people and especially the secrets of sailors' lives and hardships and also of practical seamanship in which he was abundantly capable of instructing me then I could ever have learned elsewhere. His memory was perfect seeming to form a regular chain reaching from the earliest childhood up to the time I knew him without a link wanting. His power of calculation too was extraordinary. I called myself pretty quick at figures and had been through a course of mathematical studies but working by my head I was unable to keep within sight of this man who had never been beyond his arithmetic. He carried in his head not only a log book of the voyage which was complete and accurate and from which no one thought of appealing but also an accurate registry of the cargo knowing where each thing was stowed and how many hides we took in at each port. One night he made a rough calculation of the number of hides that could be stored in the lower hold between the fore and main mast taking the depth of the hold and breadth of the beam for he knew the dimensions of every part of the ship before he had been long on board and the average area and thickness of a hide and he came surprisingly near the number as it afterwards turned out. The mate frequently came to him to know the capacity of different parts of the vessel and he could tell the sailmaker verily nearly the amount of canvas he would want for each sail in the ship for he knew the hoist of every mast and spread of each sail on the head and foot in feet and inches. When we were at sea he kept a running account in his head of the ship's way, the number of knots and courses and if the courses did not vary much during the 24 hours by taking the whole progress and allowing so many eighths, southing or northing to so many easting or westing he would make up his reckoning just before the captain took the sun at noon and often came very near the mark. He had in his chest several volumes giving accounts of inventions and mechanics which he read with great pleasure and made himself master of. I doubt if he forgot anything that he read. The only thing in the way of poetry that he ever read was Falconer's shipwreck. Which he was charmed with and pages of which he could repeat. He said he could recall the name of every sailor that had ever been his shipmate and also of every vessel, captain, and officer and the principal dates of each voyage. And a sailor with whom we afterwards filled in with who had been in a ship with Harris nearly 12 years before was much surprised that having Harris tell him things about himself which he had entirely forgotten. His facts were the dates or events no one thought of disputing and his opinions few of the sailors dared to oppose. For right or wrong he always had the best of the argument with them. His reasoning powers were striking. I have had harder work maintaining an argument with him in a watch even when I knew myself to be right and he was only doubting than I ever had before. Not from his obscenity but from his acuteness. Give him only a little knowledge of his subject and among all the young men of my acquaintance at college there is not one whom I had not rather meet in an argument than this man. I never answered a question from him or advanced an opinion to him without thinking more than once. With an iron memory he seemed to have your whole past conversation at command and if you said a thing now which ill-agreed is something you had said some months before he was sure to have you on the hip. In fact I felt when I was with him that I was with no common man. I had a positive respect for his powers of mind and thought often that if half the pains had been spent upon his education which are thrown away yearly in our colleges he would have made his mark. Like many self-taught men of real merit he overrated the value of a regular education and this I often told him though I had profited by his error for he always treated me with respect and often unnecessarily gave way to me from an overestimate of my knowledge. For the intellectual capacities of all the rest of the crew captain and all he had a sovereign contempt. He was a far bitter sailor and probably a better navigator than the captain and had more brains than all the after-part of the ship put together. The sailor said, Tom's got ahead as long as a boughsprit and if anyone fell into an argument with him they would call out, ah Jack you'd better drop that as you would a hot potato for Tom will turn you inside out before you know it. I recollect his posing me once on the subject of the corn-laws. I was called to stand my watch and coming on deck found him there before me and we began as usual to walk for an aft in the waist. He talked about the corn-laws, asked me a question about them which I gave him and my reasons my small stock of which I set forth to the best advantage supposing his knowledge on the subject must be less than mine if indeed he had any at all. When I had got through he took the liberty of differing from me and brought arguments and facts which were new to me and to which I was unable to reply. I confessed that I knew almost nothing of the subject and expressed my surprise at the extent of his information. He said that a number of years before while at a boarding house in Liverpool he had fallen in with a pamphlet on the subject and as it contained calculations had read it very carefully and had ever since wished to find someone who could add to his stock of knowledge on the question although it was many years since he had seen the book and it was a subject with which he had no previous acquaintance yet he had the chain of reasoning founded upon principles of political economy fully in his memory and his facts so far as I could judge were correct at least he stated them with precision the principles of the steam engine too he was familiar with having been several months on board a steamboat and made himself master of its secrets he knew every lunar star in both hemispheres and was a master the quadrant and sextant the men said he could take a meridian altitude of the sun from a tar bucket such was the man who at forty was still a dog before the mast at twelve dollars a month the reason for this was to be found in his past life as I had it at different times from himself he was an Englishman a native of Ilfurcombe in Devonshire his father was a skipper of a small coaster from Bristol and dying left him when quite young to the care of his mother by his exertions he received a common school education passing his winter's at school in his summers in the coasting trade until his seventeenth year when he left home to go upon foreign vessels of his mother he spoke with the greatest respect and said that she was a woman of a strong mind and had an excellent system of education which had made respectable men of his three brothers and failed in him only from his own indomitable obstinacy one thing he mentioned in which he said his mother differed from all of the mothers that he had ever seen discipline in their children that was that when he was out of humor and refused to eat instead of putting his plate away saying that his hunger would bring him to it in time she would stand over him and oblige him to eat it every mouthful of it it was no fault of hers that he was what I saw him and so great was his sense of gratitude for her efforts though unsuccessful that he determined when the voyage should end to embark for home with all the wages he should get to spend with and for his mother if perchance he should find her alive after leaving home he had spent nearly twenty years selling upon all sorts of voyages generally out of the ports of new york and boston twenty years of vice every sin that a sailor knows he had gone to the bottom of several times he had been hauled up in the hospitals and as often the great strength of his constitution had brought him out again in health several times too from his acknowledged capacity he had been promoted to the office of chief mate and often his conduct when in port especially his drunkenness which in your fear and ambition could induce him to abandon put him back into the folksal one night when giving me an account of his life and lamenting the years of manhood he had thrown away there said he in the folksal at the foot of those steps a chest of old clothes is a result of twenty two years of hard labor and exposure worked like a horse and treated like a dog as he had grown older he had begin to fill the necessity of some provision for his later years and came gradually to the conviction that rum had been his worst enemy one night in Havana a young shipmate of his was brought on board drunk with a dangerous gash in his head and his money and new clothes stripped from him Harris had been in hundreds of such scenes as these but in his then state of mind it fixed his determination and he resolved never to taste a drop of strong drink of any kind he signed no pledge and made no vow but relied on his own strength of purpose the first thing with him was to reason and then a resolution and the thing was done the date of his resolution he knew of course to the very hour it was three years before I became acquainted with him and during all the time nothing stronger than cider or coffee had passed his lips the sailors never thought of enticing Tom to take a glass any more than they would have talking to the ship's compass he was now a temperate man for life and capable of filling any birth in a ship and many a high station there is on shore which is held by a meaner man he understood the management of the ship upon scientific principles and could give the reasons for hauling every rope and a long experience added to careful observation at the time gave him a knowledge of the expedience and resorts for times of hazard for which I became much indebted to him as he took the greatest pleasure in opening his stories of information to me in return for what I was enabled to do for him stories of tyranny and hardship which had driven him into piracy and of the terrible ignorance of masters and mates and of horrid brutality to the sick dead and dying as well as of the secret navery and impositions practiced upon semen by connivance of the owners, landlords, and officers all these he had and I could not but believe them for he made the impression of an exact man to whom exaggeration was a falsehood and his statements were always credited I remember among other things his speaking of a captain whom I had known by report who had never handed a thing to a sailor but put it on deck and kicked it to him and of another who was highly connected in Boston who absolutely murdered a lad from Boston who went out with him before the mass to Samatra by keeping him hard at work while ill of the coast favor and obliging him to sleep in the closed steerage the same captain has since died of the same fever on the same coast in fact taking together all that I learned from him of semen ship of the history of sailors lives of practical wisdom and of human nature under new circumstances and strange forms of life a great history in which many are shut out I would not part with the hours I spent in watch with that man for the gift of many hours to be passed in study and intercourse with even the best of society end of chapter twenty three part two chapter twenty four of two years before the mast this little box recording is in the public domain two years before the mast by Richard Henry Dana junior chapter twenty four San Diego again Sunday October eleventh set sail this morning for the Lord passed within sight of San Pedro and to our great joy did not come to anchor but kept directly on to San Diego where we arrived in more ship on Thursday October fifteenth found here the Italian ship La Rosa from the winter which reported the big pilgrim at San Francisco all well everything was as quiet here as usual we discharged our hides horns and tallow and we're ready to sell again on the following Sunday I went to shore to my old quarters and found the gang at the hide house going on in that even tenor of their way and spent an hour or two after dark at the oven taking a whiff with my old canaka friends who really seemed glad to see me again and saluted me as the Iacani of the canacas I was grieved to find that my poor dog Bravo was dead he had sickened and died suddenly the very day after I sailed in the alert Sunday was again as usual our selling day and we got underway with the stiff breeze which reminded us that it was the latter part of the autumn and time to expect south-easters once more we beat up against the strong headwind under reef topsoil as far as San Juan where we came to anchor nearly three miles from the shore with slip ropes on our cables in the old south-easter style of last winter on the passage up we had an old sea captain on board who had married and settled in California and had not been on saltwater for more than fifteen years he was surprised at the changes and improvements that had been made in ships and still more in the manner in which we carried sail for he was really a little frightened and said that while we had top-gallant sails on he should have been under reef topsoils the working of the ship and her progress to Wendard seemed to delight him for he said she went to Wendard as though she were kegging Tuesday, October 20th having got everything ready we set the agent ashore who went up to the mission to hurry down the hides for the next morning this night we had the strictest orders to look out for south-easters and the long low clouds seemed rather threatening but the night passed over without any trouble and early the next morning we hoe out the long boat in Pines lowered away the quarter boats and went ashore to bring off our hides here we were again in this romantic spot a perpendicular hill twice the height of the ship's mast head with a single circuitous path to the top and long sand beach at its base with a swell of the whole pacific breaking high upon it and our hides ranged in piles on the overhanging summit the captain sent me who was the only one of the crew who had ever been there before to the top to count the hides and pitch them down there I stood again as six months before throwing off the hides and watching them pitching and scaling to the bottom while the men, dwarfed by the distance were walking to and fro on the beach carrying the hides as they picked them up to the distant boats up on the tops of their heads two or three boats were sent off until at last all were thrown down and the boats nearly loaded again when we were all delayed by a dozen or twenty hides which had lodged in the recesses of the bank and which we could not reach by any missiles as the general line of the side was exactly perpendicular and these places were caved in and could not be seen or reached from the top as hides are worth in Boston twelve and a half cents a pound and the captain's commission was one percent he determined not to give them up and sent on board for a pair of top-gallant-studying-seal halyards and requested some one of the crew to go to the top and come down by the halyards the older sailors said the boys who were light and active ought to go while the boys thought that strength and experience were necessary seeing the dilemma and finding myself to be near the medium of these requisites I offered my services and went up with one man to tend the rope and prepared for the descent we found a stake fastened strongly into the ground and apparently capable of holding my weight to which we made one end of the halyard well fast and taking a coil threw it over the brink the end we saw just reached to a landing-place from which the descent to the beach was easy having nothing but shirt, trousers, and hat the common sea-rig of warm weather I had no stripping to do and begin my descent by taking hold of the rope with both hands and slipping down sometime with hands and feet round the rope and sometimes breasting off with one hand and foot against the precipice and holding on to the rope with the other in this way I descended until I came to the place which shelved in and in which the hinds were launched keeping hold of the rope with one hand I scrambled in and by eight of my feet and other hand succeeded in dislodging all the hides and continued on my way just below this place the precipice projected again and going over the projection I could see nothing below me but the sea and the rocks upon which it broke and a few gulls flying in the mid-air I got down in safety pretty well covered with dirt and four of my pains was told what a damn fool you were to risk your life for half a dozen hides while we were carrying the hides through the boat I perceived what I had been too busy to observe before that heavy black clouds were rolling up from the seaward that heavy black clouds were rolling up from seaward a strong swell heaving in and every sign of a south-easter the captain hurried everything the hides were pitched into the boats and with some difficulty and by waiting nearly up to our armpits we got the boats through the surf and begin pulling aboard our gigs crew towed the penis a stern of the gig and the launch was towed by six men in the jolly boat the ship was lying three miles off pitching at her anchor and the farther we pulled the heavier grew the swell our boat stood nearly up and down several times and the penis parted her toe line and we expected every moment to see the launch swamped at length we got alongside our boats half full of water and now came the greatest trouble at all unloading the boats in a heavy sea which pitched them about so that it was almost impossible to stand in them raising them sometimes even with the rail and again dropping them below the bends with great difficulty we got all the hides aboard and stowed under hatches the yard and stay tackles hooked on and the launch and penis hoisted, chalked and gripped the quarter boats were then hoisted up and we began heaving in on the chain getting the anchor was no easy work in such a sea but as we were not going back to this port the captain determined not to slip the ships had pitched into the sea and the water rushed through the hauls holes and the chain surged so as to almost unship the barrel of the windlass Hove short, sir, said the mate Aye-aye, whether bet your chain and lose the topsoils make sail on her men with a will a few moments served to lose the topsoils went referral with reefs to sheet them home and hoist them up Bear a hand, was the order of the day and everyone saw the necessity of it for the gale was already upon us the ship broke out her own anchor which we catted and fished after a fashion and were soon close hauled under reef sails standing off on the lee shore and rocks against a heavy head sea the fore course was given to her which helped her a little but as she hardly held her own against the sea which was setting her to lured Board the main tack! shouted the captain when the tack was carried forward and taken to the windlass and all hands called to the hand spikes the great sail bellied out horizontally as though it would lift up the mains day the blocks rattled and flew about but the force of the machinery was too much for her heave ho, heave in paw yo, heave, hardy ho and in time with the song by the force of twenty strong arms the windlass came slowly round pawl after pawl and the weather clue of the sail was brought down to the waterways the starboard watch hauled after the sheet and the ship tore through the water like a mad horse quivering and shaking at every joint and dashing from her head the foam which flew off in each blow yards and yards to lured a half hour of such sailing served our turn when the clues of the sail were hauled up the sail furled and the ship eased of her press went more quietly on her way soon after the foresail was reefed and we mizentop men were sent up to take another reef in the mizentop cell this was the first time i had taken a weather earring and i felt not a little proud to sit astride of the weather yard arm pass the earring and sing out HALLOUT TO LORD from this time until we got to boston the mate never suffered anyone but our own gang to go upon the mizentopsel yard either for reefing or furling and the young english lad and i generally took the earrings between us having cleared the point and got well out to sea we squared away the yards made more sail and stood nearly before the wind for san pedro it blew strong with some rain nearly all night but fell calm toward the morning and the gale having blown itself out we came to thursday october 22 at san pedro in the old southeaster berth a link from shore with a slip rope on the cable reefs in the topsoles and rope yarns for gaskets here we lay 10 days with the usual boating height carrying rolling of cargo up the steep hill walking barefooted over stones and getting drenched in salt water the third day after our arrival the rosa came in from san juan where she went the day after the southeaster her crew said it was as smooth as a mill pond after the gale and she took off nearly a thousand hides which had been brought down for us and which we lost in consequence of the southeaster this modified us not only that an italian ship should have got to wonder to us in the trade but because every thousand hides went towards completing the 40 000 which we were to collect before we could say goodbye to california while lying here we shipped one new hand an englishman of about six and twenty years who was an acquisition as he proved to be a good sailor good saying tolerably and what was of more importance to me had a good education and a somewhat remarkable history he called himself george p marsh professed to have been at sea from a small boy and to have served his time in the smuggling trade between germany and the coast of france and england thus he accounted for his knowledge of the french language which he spoke and read as well as he did english but his cutter education would not account for his english which was far too good to have been learned in a smuggler for he wrote an uncommonly handsome hand spoke with great correctness and frequently when in private talk with me quoted from books and showed a knowledge of the customs of society and particularly of the formalities of the various english courts of law and of parliament which surprised me still he would give no other account of himself than that he was educated in a smuggler a man whom we afterwards felt in with who had been a shipmate of george's a few years before said that he heard at the boarding house from which they shipped that george had been at a college probably a naval one as he knew no latin or greek where he learned french and mathematics he was not the man by nature that harris was harris had made everything of his mind and character in spite of obstacles while this man had evidently been born in a different rank and educated early in life accordingly but had been a vagabond and had done nothing for himself since nor had george the character strength of mind or memory of harris yet there was about him the remains of a pretty good education which enabled him to talk quite up to his brains and high spirit and amenability to the point of honor which years of a dog's life had not broken after he had been a little while on board we learned of his adventures of the last two years which we afterwards heard conformed in such manner as to put the truth of them beyond a doubt he sailed from new york in the year 1833 if i mistake not before the mast in the bringlaise car for canton she was sold in the east indies and he shipped at manila in a small schooner bound on a trading voyage among the land drone and pilu islands on one of the liner islands their schooner was wrecked on a reef and they were attacked by the natives and after desperate resistance in which all their number except the captain george and a boy were killed or drowned they surrendered and were carried bound in a canoe to a neighboring island in about a month after this an opportunity occurred in which one of their number might get away i have forgotten the circumstances but only one could go and they gave way to the captain upon his promising to send them aid if he escaped he was successful in his attempt god on board an american vessel went back to manila and thence to america without making any effort for their rescue or indeed as george afterwards discovered without even mentioning their case to anyone in manila the boy that was with george died and he being alone and there being no chance for his escape the natives soon treated him with kindness and even with attention they painted him tattooed his body for he would never consent to be marked in the face or hands gave him two or three wives and in fact made a pet of him in this way he lived for 13 months in a delicious climate with plenty to eat half naked and nothing to do he soon however became tired and went around the island on different pretenses to look out for a sail one day he was out fishing in a small canoe with another man when he saw a large sail to windard a paddle league and a half off passing a breast in the island and standing westward with some difficulty he persuaded the islander to go off with him to the ship promising to return with a good supply of rum and tobacco these articles which the islanders had got a taste of from the american traders were too strong a temptation for the fellow and he consented they paddled off in the track in which the ship was bound and lay to until she came down to them george stepped on board the ship nearly naked painted from head to foot and in no way distinguishable from his companion until he began to speak upon this the people on board were not a little astonished and having learned his story the captain had him washed in clothes and sending away the poor astonished native with a knife or two and some tobacco and calico took george with him on the voyage this was the ship cabot of new york captain low she was bound to manila from across the pacific and george did seamen's duty in her until arrival in manila when he left her and shipped in a brig bound to the sandwich islands from wahoo he came in the british brig clementine to monterey as second officer where having some difficulty with the captain he left her and coming down the coast joined us at san pedro nearly six months after this among some papers we received by an arrival from boston we found a letter from captain low of the cabot published immediately upon his arrival in new york giving all the particulars just as we had them from george the letter was published for the information of the friends of george and captain low added that he left him at manila to go to wahoo and he had heard nothing of him sense george had an interesting journal of his adventures in the pilu islands which he had written out at length in a handsome hand and in correct english note in the spring of 1841 a seafaring man called at my rooms in boston and said he wished to see me as he knew something about a man i had spoken of in my book he then told me that he was a second mate of the bark mary frazier which sailed from betavia in company with the cabot down to manila that went off the pilu islands they fell in with a canoe with two natives on board who told them that there was an american ship ahead out of sight and that they had put a white man on board her the bark gave the canoe a tow for a short distance when the mary frazier arrived at manila they found the cabot there and my informant said that george came on board several times and told the same story that i had given of him in this book he said that the name of george's schooner was the dash and that she was wrecked and attacked by the natives as george had told me this man whose name was bosham was second mate of the mary frazier when she took the missionaries to wahoo he became religious during the passage and joined the mission church at wahoo upon his arrival when i saw him he was master of a bark and note end of chapter 24 chapter 25 part one of two years before the mast this the bravoxt recording is in the public domain two years before the mast by richard henry danah jr chapter 25 part one rumors of war sunday november first sailed this day sunday again for santa barbara where we arrived on the fifth coming round santa boyna ventura in nearing the anchorage we saw two vessels in port a large full rigged and a small hermaphrodite brig the former the crew said must be the pilgrim but i had been too long on the pilgrim to be mistaken in her and i was right indifferent from them four upon nearer approach her long low sheer sharp bowels and raking mast told quite another story manawar brig said some of them boltamore clipper said others the iacuccio the eye and soon the broad folds of the beautiful banner of st george white filled with blood red border and cross were displayed from her peak a few minutes put it beyond a doubt and we were lying by the side of the iacuccio which had sailed from san diego about nine months before while we were lying there in the pilgrim she had since been to valparaiso kaleo and the sandwich islands and had just come up on the coast her boat came on board bringing captain wilson and in half an hour the news was all over the ship that there was a war between the united states and france exaggerated accounts reached the folxel battles had been fought a large french fleet was in the pacific etc etc and one of the boats crew the iacuccio said that when they left kaleo a large french frigate and the american frigate brandy wine which were lying there were going outside to have a battle and that the english frigate blonde was to be umpire and see fair play here was important news for us alone on an unprotected coast without an american man of war within some thousands of miles in the prospect of a voyage home through the whole length of the pacific and atlantic oceans a french prison seemed a much more probable place of destination than a good port of boston however we were too salt to believe every yarn that comes into the folxel and waited to hear the truth of the matter from higher authority by means of the supercargo's clerk i got the amount of the matter which was that the governments had had a difficulty about the payment of a debt that war had been threatened and prepared for but not actually declared although it was pretty generally anticipated this was not quite so bad yet was no small cause of anxiety but we cared very little about the matter ourselves happy go lucky with jack we did not believe that a french prison would be much worse than high droguing on the coast of california and no one who has not been a long dull voyage shut up in one ship can conceive of the effect of monotony upon one's thoughts and wishes the prospect of a change is a green spot in the desert and the probability of great events and exciting scenes creates a feeling of delight and sets life in motion so as to give a pleasure which anyone not in the same state would be unable to explain in fact a more jovial night we had not passed in the folxel for months all seemed in unaccountably high spirits an undefined anticipation of radical changes of new scenes and great newings seemed to have possessed everyone and the common drudgery of the vessel appeared contemptible here was a new vein opened a grand theme of conversation and a topic for all sorts of discussions national filling with rot up jokes were cracked upon the only frenchman in the ship in comparisons made between old horse and soup may agree etc etc we remained in uncertainty as to this war for more than two months when an arrival from the sandwich islands brought us the news of an amicable arrangement of the difficulties the other vessel which we found in port was a hermaphrodite break avon from the sandwich islands she was fitted up in handsome style fired a gun and ran her ensign up and down at sunrise and sunset had a band of four or five pieces of music on board and appeared rather like a pleasure yacht than a trader yet in connection with the laureate clementine boulevard convoy and other small vessels belonging to sundry americans at wahoo she carried on a considerable trade legal and illegal in otterskins silks teas etc as well as hides and tallow the second day after our arrival a full rigged brig came around the point from the northward sailed leisurely through the bay and stood off again for the southeast in the direction of the large island of catalina the next day the avon got underway and stood in the same direction bound for san pedro this might do for marines and californians but we knew the ropes too well the brig was never seen again on the coast and the avon went into san pedro in about a week with a replenished cargo of canton and american goods this was one of the means of escaping the heavy duties that mexicans lay upon all imports a vessel comes on the coast enters a moderate cargo at monterey which is the only customs house and commences trading in a month or more having sold a large part of her cargo she stretches over to catalina or other the large uninhabited islands which lie off the coast in a trip from port to port and supplies herself with choice goods from a vessel from wahoo which has been lying off on the islands waiting for her two days after the selling of the avon the laureate came in from the lured and without a doubt had also had a snatch at the brig's cargo tuesday november 10th going ashore as usual in the gig just before sundown to bring off the captain we found upon taking in the captain and putting off again that our ship which lay the farthest out had run up her ensign this meant sell hoe of course but as we were within the point we could see nothing give way boys give way lay out on your oars and long stroke said the captain and stretching to the whole length of our arms heading back again so that our backs touch the thwarts we sent her through the water like a rocket a few minutes of such pulling open the islands one after another in range of the point and gave us a view of the canal where was a ship under top gallant cells standing in with a light breeze for the anchorage putting the boat's head in the direction of the ship the captain told us to lay out again and we needed no spring for the prospect of boarding a new ship perhaps from home hearing the news and having something to tell of when we got back was excitement enough for us and we gave way with the will captain nigh and the laureate who had been an old wellman was in the stern sheets and fell mightily into the spirit of it bend your backs break your oars he said lay me on captain bunker there she flukes and other exclamations current among wellman in the meantime it fell flat calm and being within a couple of miles of the ship we expected to board her in a few minutes when a breeze sprung up dead ahead for the ship and she braced up and stood off toward the islands sharp on the larbert tack making good way through the water this of course brought us up and we had only to ease larbert oars pull round starboard and go aboard the alert with something very like a flea in the ear there was a light land breeze all night and the ship did not come to anchor until the next morning as soon as her anchor was down we went aboard and found her to be the well ship willmington and liverpool packet of new bedford last from the offshore ground with 1900 barrels of oil a spouter we knew her to be as soon as we saw her by her cranes and boats and by her stump topgallant mast and a certain slovenly look to the sails rigging spars and hall and when we got on board we found everything to correspond spouter fashion she had a false deck which was rough and oily and cut up in every direction by the chimes of oil casks her rigging with slack and turning white paint worn off the spars and blocks clumsy ceasings straps without covers and homework bound splices in every direction her crew too were not in much better condition her captain was a slab sided quaker in a suit of brown with a broad brimmed hat bending his long legs as he moved about decks with his head down like a sheep and the men looked more like fishermen and farmers than they did like sailors though it was by no means cold weather we having on only our red shirts and duck trousers they all had on woolen trousers not blue in ship shape but of all colors brown drab gray eye and green with suspenders over their shoulders and pockets to put their hands in this added to the jersey frocks striped comforters about the neck thick cowhide boots woolen caps and a strong oily smell and a decidedly green look will complete the description eight or ten were on the four topsoil yard and as many more in the main furling the topsoil while eight or ten were hanging about the folks sold doing nothing this was a strange sight for a vessel coming to anchor so we went up to them to see what was the matter one of them a stout hearty looking fellow held out his leg and said that he had the scurvy another had cut his hand and others had got nearly well but said there were plenty of loft to furl the cells so they were soldiering the folks all there was only one splicer on board a fine-looking old tar who was in the front of the four topsoil he was probably the only thorough marlin spike semen in the ship before the mast the mates of course and the boat steers and also two or three of the greater part of the crew were raw hands just from the bush and had not yet got the hay seed out of their hair the mizzen topsoil hung in the blunt lines until everything was furled forward thus a crew of 30 men were half an hour in doing what would have been done in the alert with 18 hands to go aloft in 15 or 20 minutes note I have been told that this description of a wellman has given offense to the well-trading people of nantucket new bedford and the vineyard it is not exaggerated and the appearance of such a ship and crew might well impress a young man trained in the ways of a ship in the style of the alert long observation has satisfied me that there are no better semen so far as handling a ship is concerned and none so ventures and skillful navigators as the masters and officers of our wellman but never either on this voyage or on a subsequent visit to the pacific and its islands was my fortune to fall in with a well ship whose appearance and the appearance of his crew gave signs of strictness and discipline and semen like neatness probably these things are impossibilities from the nature of the business and I may have made too much of them end note we found that they had been at sea six or eight months and had no news to tell us so we left them and promised to get liberty to come on board in the evening for some curiosities accordingly as soon as we were knocked off in the evening and were through supper we obtained leave took a boat and went to board and spent an hour or two they gave us pieces of whale bone and the teeth and other parts of curious sea animals and we exchanged books with them a practice very common among ships and foreign ports by which you get rid of the books you have read and reread and a supply of new ones in their stead and jack is not very nice as to their comparative value note this visiting between the crews of ships at sea is called among whalemen gamming and note thursday november 12th this day was quite cool in the early part and there were black clouds about but as it was often so in the morning nothing was apprehended and all the captains went ashore together to spend the day towards noon the clouds hung heavily over the mountains coming halfway down the hills that encircle the town of santa barbara and a heavy swell rolled in from the southeast the mate immediately ordered the gigs crew away and at the same time we saw boats pulling ashore from the other vessels here was a grand chance for a rowing match and everyone did his best we passed the boats of the iocucho and loriad but could not hold our own with the long six-ord boat of the whale ship they reached the breakers before us but here we had the advantage of them for not being used to the surf they were obliged to wait to see us beach our boat just as in the same place nearly a year before we and the pilgrim were glad to be taught by a boat crew of kanakas we had hardly got the boats beached and their heads pointed out to see before our old friend bill jackson the handsome english sailor who steered the loriats boat called out that his brig was adrift and sure enough she was dragging her anchors and drifting down into the bite of the bay without waiting for the captain for there was no one on board the brig but the mate and steward he sprang into the boat called the kanakas together and tried to put off but the kanakas though capital water dogs were frightened by their vessels being adrift and by the emergency of the case and seemed to lose their faculties twice their boat filled and came broadside upon the beach jackson swore at them for a parcel of savages and promised to flock every one of them this made the matter no better when we came forward he told the kanakas to take their seats in the boat and going to on each side walked out with her till it was up to our shoulders and gave them a shove when giving way with their oars they got her safely into the long regular swell in the meantime boats had put off to the loriat from our ship and the whaler coming all on board the brig together they let go the other anchor paid out chain braced the yards to the wind and brought the vessel up in a few minutes the captains came hurrying down on the run and there was no time to be lost for the gale promised to be a severe one and the surf was breaking upon the beach three deep higher and higher every instant the aya kucho's boat pulled by four kanakas put off first and as they had no rudder or steering ore would probably never have got off had we not waited out with them as far as the surf would permit the next that made the attempt was a whale boat for we being the most experienced beach comers needed no help and stayed till the last well men make the best boats crew in the world for a long pole but this landing was new to them and notwithstanding the examples they had had they slewed round and were hoeve up boats oars and men all together high and dry upon the sand the second time they filled and had to turn their boat over and set her off again we could be of no help to them for they were so many as to be in one another's way without the addition of our numbers the third time they got off though not without shipping a sea which drenched them all and half filled their boat keeping them bailing until they reached their ship english ben and i who were the largest standing on each side of the bows to keep her head out to sea two more shipping and manning the two after oars and the captain taking the steering oar two or three mexicans who stood upon the beach looking at us wrapped their cloaks about them shook their heads and muttered caramba they had no taste for doing such things in fact the hydrophobia is a nautical melody and shows itself in their persons as well as their actions watching for a smooth chance we determined to show the other boats the way it should be done and as soon as ours floated ran out with her keeping her head out with all our strength and the help of the captain's oar and the two after oarsman giving way regularly and strongly until our feet were off the ground we tumbled into the bows keeping perfectly still from fear of hindering the others for some time it was doubtful how it would go the boat stood nearly up and down in the water in the sea rolling from under her let her fall upon the water with a force which seemed almost to save her bottom in but quietly sliding two oars forward along the thwarts without impeding the roars we shipped two bow oars and thus by the help of four oars in the captain's strong arm we got safely off though we shipped several seas which left us half full of water we pulled alongside of the laureate put her skipper on board and found her making preparations for slipping and then pulled aboard our own ship here mr. brown always on hand had got everything ready so that we had only to hook on the gig and hoisted up when the order was given to lose the sails while we were on the yards we saw the laureate underway and before our yards were mass-headed the aya kucho had spread her wings and with yards braced sharp up was standing to thwart our haws there is no prettier sight in the world than a full-rigged clipper-built brig selling sharp on the wind in a minute more our slip rope was gone and the head yards filled away and we were off next came the whaler and in half an hour from the time when four vessels were lying quietly at anchor without a rag out or a sign of motion the bay was deserted and four white clouds were moving over the water to seaword being sure of clearing the point we stood off with our yards a little braced in while the aya kucho went off with a top bowlin which brought her to winder device during all this day and the greater part of the night we had the usual southeaster entertainment a gale of wind with occasional rain and finally topped off with a drenching rain of three or four hours at daybreak the clouds thinned off and rolled away and the sun came up clear the wind instead of coming out from the northward as usual blew steadily and freshly from the anchoring ground this was bad for us for being flying light with little more than ballast trim we were in no condition for showing off on a top bowlin and had depended upon a fair wind with which by the help of our light cells and studying souls we meant to have been the first at the anchoring ground but the aya kucho was a good link to the winter device and was standing in in fine style but the aya kucho was a good link to the winter device the whaler however was as far to the lord of us and a laureate was nearly out of sight among the islands up the canal by hauling every brace and bowlin and clapping watch tackles upon all the sheets and hallyards we managed to hold our own and drop the lowered vessels a little in every tack when we reached the anchoring ground the aya kucho had got her anchor furrowed her sails squared her yards and was lying as quietly as if nothing had happened we had our usual good luck in getting our anchor without letting go another and we're all snug with our boats at the boom ends in half an hour in about two hours more the whaler came in and made a clumsy piece of work in getting her anchor being obliged to let go her best bower and finally to get out a cage and a hauser they were heave hoeing stopping and unstopping pawling catting and fishing for three hours and the sails hunk from the yards all the afternoon and were not furrowed until sundown the laureate came in just after dark and let go her anchor making no attempt to pick up the other until the next day this affair led to a dispute as to the selling of our ship and the aya kucho beds were made between the captains and the crews took it up in their own way but as she was bound to lured and weed to windered and merchant captains cannot deviate a trial never took place and perhaps it was well for us that it did not for the aya kucho had been eight years in the pacific in every part of it bell perizo sandridge islands kanton california and all and was called the fastest merchant men that traded in the pacific unless it was the brig john gilpin and perhaps the ship and makim of baltimore end of chapter 25 part one