Two Years Before the Mast
friars had built for beauty as well as for use; the architecture which
they devised in skillful adaptation of their native Spanish type
displayed originality and picturesque charm. Hence, of late years,
Californians have come to feel a worthy pride in the monuments of the
early history of their state, and have taken steps to preserve such of
them as survive. No less than twenty-one are today the goal of the
traveller.
The reader who is interested in pursuing the subject thus outlined will
find its satisfactory treatment in George Wharton James's _In and out
of the old Missions of California,_ a book that combines agreeable
reading with excellent illustrations.
References
The author's life is fully and sympathetically treated in Charles
Francis Adams's Richard Henry Dana. Boston, 1890.
The most exhaustive history of California and the Pacific coast in
general is H. H. Bancroft's History of the Pacific States of North
America. San Francisco, 1882-1888. A briefer work is Josiah Royce's
California. Boston, 1886. Though this book considers mainly the
transition period, 1846-1856, its introduction gives an excellent
survey of earlier years. F. J. Turner's Rise of the New West, which is
volume XIV of the American Nation, New York, 1907, tells the story of
the development of the whole territory west of the Mississippi.
Those who are curious to search out all the items of ship construction
will find them adequately illustrated, under the caption, "ship," in
both Standard and Century dictionaries.
Explanation of Diagram
The following diagram, from which many details have been omitted,
presents sufficient data for an understanding of the more important
nautical terms which occur in the text. A number of other such terms
have been explained in the notes. In omitting reference to many more,
the editor has felt that ovarannotation would turn a straightforward
and interesting narrative into a mere excuse for a nautical dictionary,
and quite defeat the purpose of the book. The author's technical
vocabulary, even when most bewildering, serves to give force and the
vividness of local color to his descriptions. To pause in the midst of
a storm at sea for comment and definition would result merely in
checking the movement of the story and putting a damper upon the
imagination.
Two Years before the Mast affords the teacher a somewhat unusual
opportunity. Few literary works are better calculated to stimulate
inquiry into the remarkable changes which three-quarters of a century
have wrought in the United States. Much profitable class employment in
the drawing of maps and the writing of brief themes dealing with
various phases of the romantic history of California will suggest
itself. The numerous geographical allusions should be traced with the
aid of an atlas.
| --+--
--+-- | |j|
/| | --+--
/ |f| | |i|
/ +-- ---+---
/ /|e| | | |
/ / +--- | | h|
/ / | | ----+----
/a / |d | | | |
/__/ b +---- | | g |
/ /_____|c | \__|____\
/__/ |___| |
\------+----------+-------
\_______________________/
a. Flying jib.
b. Jib.
c. Foresail.
d. Foretopsail.
e. Foretopgallantsail.
f. Foreroyal.
g. Mainsail.
h. Maintopsail.
i. Maintopgallantsail.
j. Mainroyal.
|
|B2
| | |C2
|A2 6--+-- |
3--+-- | 9--+--
| || |
|| | ||
| 5--+-- |
2---+--- |B1 |C1
E --__ |A1 || 8---+---
--__ || | |
--| 4----+---- ||
1----+---- | 7----+---- G __--
| | | __-- /
|A |B |C F __-- \ /
D | | | __-- H\/
------______|________|________|________---------
\_______________________________/
A. Mizzenmast.
A1. Mizzentopmast.
A2. Mizzentopgallant and royalmast.
B. Mainmast.
B1. Maintopmast.
B2. Maintopgallant and royalmast.
C. Foremast.
C1. Foretopmast.
C2. Foretopgallant and royalmast.
D. Spanker boom.
E. Spanker gaff.
F. Bowsprit.
G. Jib boom and flying jib boom.
H. Martingale boom.
1. Crossjack yard.
2. Mizzentopsail yard.
3. Mizzentopgallant yard.
4. Main yard.
5. Maintopsail yard.
6. Maintopgallant yard.
7. Fore yard.
8. Foretopsail yard.
9. Foretopgallant yard.
[Editor: Many more numbered lifts, stays, and braces were left out of
these simplified diagrams. They are intended to be viewed using a
fixed-width font.]
Each mast section is joined to the lower one in two places:
| |
| |
___|_|_
\_____/ Mast cap.
| | |
| | |
| | |
_|_|_|_
\_____/ Trestletree.
| |
| |
Each mast also sports net-like rigging from the lowest trestletree to
the deck. These are called "shrouds".
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST
CONTENTS
I DEPARTURE
II FIRST IMPRESSIONS--"SAIL HO!"
III SHIP'S DUTIES--TROPICS
IV A ROGUE--TROUBLE ON BOARD--"LAND HO!"--POMPERO--CAPE HORN
V CAPE HORN--A VISIT
VI LOSS OF A MAN--SUPERSTITION
VII JUAN FERNANDEZ--THE PACIFIC
VIII "TARRING DOWN"--DAILY LIFE--"GOING AFT"--CALIFORNIA
IX CALIFORNIA--A SOUTH-EASTER
X A SOUTH-EASTER--PASSAGE UP THE COAST
XI PASSAGE UP THE COAST--MONTEREY
XII LIFE AT MONTEREY
XIII TRADING--A BRITISH SAILOR
XIV SANTA BARBARA--HIDE-DROGHING--HARBOR DUTIES--DISCONTENT--SAN
PEDRO
XV A FLOGGING--A NIGHT ON SHORE--THE STATE OF THINGS ON
BOARD--SAN DIEGO
XVI LIBERTY-DAY ON SHORE
XVII SAN DIEGO--A DESERTION--SAN PEDRO AGAIN--BEATING THE COAST
XVIII EASTER SUNDAY--"SAIL HO!"--WHALES--SAN JUAN--ROMANCE OF
HIDE-DROGHING--SAN DIEGO AGAIN
XIX THE SANDWICH ISLANDERS--HIDE-CURING--WOOD-CUTTING--RATTLE-
SNAKES--NEW-COMERS
XX LEISURE--NEWS FROM HOME--"BURNING THE WATER"
XXI CALIFORNIA AND ITS INHABITANTS
XXII LIFE ON SHORE--THE ALERT
XXIII NEW SHIP AND SHIPMATES--MY WATCHMATE
XXIV SAN DIEGO AGAIN--A DESCENT--HURRIED DEPARTURE--A NEW SHIPMATE
XXV RUMORS OF WAR--A SPOUTER--SLIPPING FOR A SOUTH-EASTER--A GALE
XXVI SAN FRANCISCO--MONTEREY
XXVII THE SUNDAY WASH-UP--ON SHORE--A SET-TO--A GRANDEE--"SAIL
HO!"--A FANDANGO
XXVIII AN OLD FRIEND--A VICTIM--CALIFORNIA RANGERS--NEWS FROM
XXIX LOADING FOR HOME--A SURPRISE--LAST OF AN OLD FRIEND--THE LAST
HIDE--A HARD CASE--UP ANCHOR, FOR HOME!--HOMEWARD BOUND
XXX BEGINNING THE LONG RETURN VOYAGE--A SCARE
XXXI BAD PROSPECTS--FIRST TOUCH OF CAPE HORN--ICEBERGS--TEMPERANCE
SHIPS--LYING-UP--ICE--DIFFICULTY ON BOARD--CHANGE OF
COURSE--STRAITS OF MAGELLAN
XXXII ICE AGAIN--A BEAUTIFUL AFTERNOON--CAPE HORN--"LAND
HO!"--HEADING FOR HOME
XXXIII CRACKING ON--PROGRESS HOMEWARD--A PLEASANT SUNDAY--A FINE
SIGHT--BY-PLAY
XXXIV NARROW ESCAPES--THE EQUATOR--TROPICAL SQUALLS--A THUNDER STORM
XXXV A DOUBLE-REEF-TOP-SAIL BREEZE--SCURVY--A FRIEND IN
NEED--PREPARING FOR PORT--THE GULF STREAM
XXXVI SOUNDINGS--SIGHTS FROM HOME--BOSTON HARBOR--LEAVING THE SHIP
CONCLUDING CHAPTER
PREFACE
I am unwilling to present this narrative to the public without a few
words in explanation of my reasons for publishing it. Since Mr.
Cooper's Pilot and Red Rover, there have been so many stories of
sea-life written, that I should really think it unjustifiable in me to
add one to the number without being able to give reasons in some
measure warranting me in so doing.
With the single exception, as I am quite confident, of Mr. Ames's
entertaining, but hasty and desultory work, called "Mariner's
Sketches," all the books professing to give life at sea have been
written by persons who have gained their experience as naval officers,
or passengers, and of these, there are very few which are intended to
be taken as narratives of facts.
Now, in the first place, the whole course of life, and daily duties,
the discipline, habits and customs of a man-of-war are very different
from those of the merchant service; and in the next place, however
entertaining and well written these books may be, and however
accurately they may give sea-life as it appears to their authors, it
must still be plain to every one that a naval officer, who goes to sea
as a gentleman, "with his gloves on," (as the phrase is,) and who
associated only with his fellow-officers, and hardly speaks to a sailor
except through a boatswain's mate, must take a very different view of
the whole matter from that which would be taken by a common sailor.
Besides the interest which every one must feel in exhibitions of life
in those forms in which he himself has never experienced it; there has
been, of late years, a great deal of attention directed toward common
seamen, and a strong sympathy awakened in their behalf. Yet I believe
that, with the single exception which I have mentioned, there has not
been a book written, professing to give their life and experiences, by
one who has been of them, and can know what their life really is. A
voice from the forecastle has hardly yet been heard.
In the following pages I design to give an accurate and authentic
narrative of a little more than two years spent as a common sailor,
before the mast, in the American merchant service. It is written out
from a journal which I kept at the time, and from notes which I made of
most of the events as they happened; and in it I have adhered closely
to fact in every particular, and endeavored to give each thing its true
character. In so doing, I have been obliged occasionally to use strong
and coarse expressions, and in some instances to give scenes which may
be painful to nice feelings; but I have very carefully avoided doing
so, whenever I have not felt them essential to giving the true
character of a scene. My design is, and it is this which has induced me
to publish the book, to present the life of a common sailor at sea as
it really is,--the light and the dark together.
There may be in some parts a good deal that is unintelligible to the
general reader; but I have found from my own experience, and from what
I have heard from others, that plain matters of fact in relation to
customs and habits of life new to us, and descriptions of life under
new aspects, act upon the inexperienced through the imagination, so
that we are hardly aware of our want of technical knowledge. Thousands
read the escape of the American frigate through the British channel,
and the chase and wreck of the Bristol trader in the Red Rover, and
follow the minute nautical manoeuvres with breathless interest, who do
not know the name of a rope in the ship; and perhaps with none the less
admiration and enthusiasm for their want of acquaintance with the
professional detail.
In preparing this narrative I have carefully avoided incorporating into
it any impressions but those made upon me by the events as they
occurred, leaving to my concluding chapter, to which I shall
respectfully call the reader's attention, those views which have been
suggested to me by subsequent reflection.
These reasons, and the advice of a few friends, have led me to give
this narrative to the press. If it shall interest the general reader,