Herman Melville, Mariner and Mystic
till about eight o’clock,” he says, “then made up a whist party and
played till one of the number had to visit his room from sickness.
Retired early and had a sound sleep. Was up betimes and aloft, to
recall the old emotions of being at the mast-head. Found that the
ocean looked the same as ever. Have tried to read but find it hard
work. However, there are some very pleasant passengers on board,
with whom to converse. Chief among these is a Mr. Adler, a German
scholar, to whom Duyckinck introduced me. He is author of a formidable
lexicon (German or English); in compiling which he almost ruined his
health. He was almost crazy, he tells me, for a time. He is full of
the German metaphysics and discourses of Kant, Swedenborg, etc. He
has been my principal companion thus far. There is also a Mr. Taylor
among the passengers, cousin of James Bayard Taylor, the pedestrian
traveller. There is a Scotch artist on board, a painter, with a most
unpoetical looking child, a young-one all cheeks and forehead, the
former preponderating. Young McCurdy I find to be a lisping youth of
genteel capacity, but quite disposed to be sociable. We have several
Frenchmen and Englishmen. One of the latter has been hunting, and
carries over with him two glorious pairs of antlers (moose) as trophies
of his prowess in the Woods of Maine. We have also a middle-aged
English woman, who sturdily walks the decks and prides herself upon
her sea-legs, and being an old tar.” There was also aboard “a Miss
Wilbur (I think) of New York.” Melville reports of Miss Wilbur
that she “is of a marriageable age, keeps a diary, and talks about
‘winning souls to Christ.’” In the evening, Melville “walked the
deck with the German, Mr. Adler, till a late hour, talking of ‘Fixed
Fate, Free-will, free-knowledge absolute’ etc. His philosophy is
_Coleridgean_; he accepts the Scriptures as divine, and yet leaves
himself free to inquire into Nature. He does not take it, that the
Bible is absolutely infallible, and that anything opposed to it in
Science must be wrong. He believes that there are things not of God and
independent of Him,--things that would have existed were there no God;
such as that two and two make four; for it is not that God so decrees
mathematically, but that in the very nature of things, the fact is
thus.”
On the following morning, Melville was up early. “Opened my bull’s
eye window, and looked out to the East. The sun was just rising--the
horizon was red;--a familiar sight to me, reminding me of old times.
Before breakfast, went up to the mast-head by way of gymnastics. About
ten o’clock the wind rose, the sun fell, and the deck looked dismally
empty. By dinner time, it blew half a gale, and the passengers mostly
retired to their rooms, sea-sick. After dinner, the rain ceased, but it
still blew stiffly, and we were slowly forging along under close-reefed
top-sails--mainsail furled. I was walking the deck, when I perceived
one of the steerage passengers looking over the side; I looked too,
and saw a man in the water, his head completely lifted above the
waves,--about twelve feet from the ship, right amast the gangway. For
an instant, I thought I was dreaming; for no one else seemed to see
what I did. Next moment, I shouted ‘Man Overboard!’ and turned to go
aft. I dropped overboard the tackle-fall of the quarter-boat, and swung
it toward the man, who was now drifting close to the ship. He did not
get hold of it, and I got over the side, within a foot or two of the
sea, and again swung the rope toward him. He now got hold of it. By
this time, a crowd of people--sailors and others--were clustering about
the bulwarks; but none seemed very anxious to save him. They warned
_me_, however, not to fall overboard. After holding on to the rope,
about a quarter of a minute, the man let go of it and dropped astern
under the mizzen chains. Four or five of the seamen jumped over into
the chains and swung him more ropes. But his conduct was unaccountable;
he could have saved himself, had he been so minded. I was struck by the
expression of his face in the water. It was merry. At last he dropped
off under the ship’s counter, and all hands cried ‘He’s gone!’ Running
to the taffrail we saw him again, floating off--saw a few bubbles, and
never saw him again. No boat was lowered, no sail was shaken, hardly
any noise was made. The man drowned like a bullock. It afterward turned
out, that he was crazy, and had jumped overboard. He had declared he
would do so, several times; and just before he did jump, he had tried
to get possession of his child, in order to jump into the sea, with the
child in his arms. His wife was miserably sick in her berth.”
In the steerage another crazy man was reported. But his lunacy turned
out to be delirium tremens, consequent upon “keeping drunk for the last
two months.”
Sunday the fourteenth was “a regular blue devil day; a gale of wind,
and everybody sick. Saloons deserted, and all sorts of nausea heard
from the state-rooms. Managed to get thro’ the day somehow, by reading
and walking the deck, tho’ the last was almost as much as my neck was
worth. Saw a lady with a copy of _Omoo_ in her hand two days ago. Now
and then she would look up at me, as if comparing notes. She turns out
to be the wife of a young Scotchman, an artist, going out to Scotland
to sketch scenes for his patrons in Albany, including Dr. Armsby. He
introduced himself to me by mentioning the name of Mr. Twitchell who
painted my portrait gratis. He is a very unpretending young man, and
looks more like a tailor than an artist. But appearances are etc.--”
The portrait painted by Mr. Twitchell is now not known to exist.
Monday broke fair. “By noon the passengers were pretty nearly all on
deck, convalescent. They seem to regard me as a hero, proof against
wind and weather. My occasional feats in the rigging are regarded
as a species of tight-rope dancing. Poor Adler, however, is hardly
himself again. He is an exceedingly amiable man, and a fine scholar
whose society is improving in a high degree. This afternoon Dr.
Taylor and I sketched a plan for going down the Danube from Vienna
to Constantinople; thence to Athens on the steamer; to Beyrout and
Jerusalem--Alexandria and the Pyramids. From what I learn, I have no
doubt this can be done at a comparatively trifling expense. Taylor has
had a good deal of experience in cheap European travel, and from his
knowledge of German is well fitted for a travelling companion thro
Austria and Turkey. I am full (just now) of this glorious Eastern
jaunt. Think of it:--Jerusalem and the Pyramids--Constantinople, the
Egean and also Athens!--The wind is not fair yet, and there is much
growling consequently. Drank a small bottle of London stout to-day for
dinner, and think it did me good. I wonder how much they charge for it?
I must find out.”
On the sixteenth his journal looks back towards home. “What’s little
Barney about?” he asks of his son Malcolm. And of his wife: “Where’s
Orianna?” Four days later, having been “annoyed towards morning by a
crying baby adjoining” he repeats this simple catechism.
The entire morning of the eighteenth--the day delightful and the ship
getting on famously--Melville spent “in the maintop with Adler and Dr.
Taylor, discussing our plans for the grand circuit of Europe and the
East. Taylor, however, has communicated to me a circumstance that may
prevent him from accompanying us--something of a pecuniary nature. He
reckons our expenses at $400.” Though Melville played with this idea
of the trip into the East for some days, he in the end was forced by
lack of funds to give it up. Not until 1856 did he see Greece, and
Constantinople, and the Holy Land, and then under tragic circumstances.
The rest of the week went by eventlessly. Melville read, lounged,
played cards, went into the Ladies’ Saloon for the first time, there
to “hear Mrs. Gould, the opera lady, sing.” When he comes to Sunday,
October 21, he is unusually laconic: on ship board at least, Melville
was in a mood to sympathise with Fielding’s liberties with the
calendar in _Tom Jones_ in counting six secular days as a full week.
“Cannot remember what happened to-day,” he writes; “it came to an end
somehow.” But on the morrow, his memory cleared. “I forgot to mention
that _last night_ about 9:30 P. M., Adler and Taylor came into my
room, and it was proposed to have whiskey punches, which we _did_ have
accordingly. Adler drank about three tablespoons full--Taylor four or
five tumblers, etc. We had an extraordinary time and did not break up
till after two in the morning. We talked metaphysics continually, and
Hegel, Schlegel, Kant, etc., were discussed under the influence of
the whiskey. I shall not forget Adler’s look when he quoted La Place
the French astronomer--‘It is not necessary, gentlemen, to account
for these worlds by the hypothesis’, etc. After Adler retired, Taylor
and I went out on the bowsprit--splendid spectacle.” Three days later
there was further inducement to metaphysical discussion. “By evening
blew a very stiff breeze and we dashed on in magnificent style. Fine
moonlight night, and we rushed on thro’ snow-banks of foam. McCurdy
invited Adler, the Doctor and I into his room and ordered champagne.
Went on deck again and remained till near midnight. The scene was
indescribable--I never saw such sailing before.”
On Saturday, October 27: “Steered our course in a wind. I played
shuffle-board for the first time. Ran about aloft a good deal. McCurdy
invited Adler, Taylor and I to partake of some _mulled wine_ with him,
which we did, in my room. Got--all of us--riding on the German horse
again. Taylor has not been in Germany in vain. We sat down to whist,
and separated at about three in the morning.”
On the morrow, “Decks very wet, and hard work to take exercise. (‘Where
dat old man?’) Read a little, dozed a little and to bed early.” So
passed another vacant Sabbath. In the margin opposite “Where dat old
man?” Melville’s wife has added in pencil: “Macky’s baby words.”
Melville thrice quotes this question of Malcolm’s--and each time Mrs.
Melville explains it in the margin, and initials her explanation each
time. The third time she writes: “First words of baby Malcolm’s. E.S.M.”
Monday was wet and foggy. Some of the passengers were sick. “In the
afternoon tried to create some amusement by arraigning Adler before
the Captain in a criminal charge. In the evening put the Captain in
the chains, and argued the question ‘which was best, a monarchy or
a republic?’ Had some good sport during the debate--the Englishman
wouldn’t take part in it tho’.--After claret and stout with Monsieur
Moran and Taylor, went on deck and found it a moonlight midnight. Wind
astern. Retired at 1 A. M.”
On November 1, Melville wrote: “Just three weeks from home, and made
the land--Start Point--about 3 P. M.--well up channel--passed the
Lizzard. Very fine day--great number of ships in sight. Thro’ these
waters Blake’s and Nelson’s ships once sailed. Taylor suggested that
he and I should return McCurdy’s civilities. We did, and Captain
Griswold joined and ordered a pitcher of his own. The Captain is a
very intelligent and gentlemanly man--converses well and understands
himself. I never was more deceived in a person than I was in him.
Retired about midnight. Taylor played a rare joke upon McCurdy this
evening, passing himself off as Miss Wilbur, having borrowed her cloak,
etc. They walked together. Shall see Portsmouth to-morrow morning.”
Saturday, Nov. 3rd: “Woke about six o’clock with an insane idea that
we were going before the wind, and would be in Portsmouth in an hour’s
time. Soon found out my mistake. About eight o’clock took a pilot, who
brought some papers two weeks old. Made the Isle of Wight about 10 A.