Two Years Before the Mast
fair to be one of the leading dogs on the beach. I called him Bravo,
and the only thing I regretted at the thought of leaving the beach, was
parting with him.
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 afternoon's paséo upon the beach, was the ship--where she could
be--had she been to San Francisco?--how many hides she would bring,
etc., etc.
Tuesday, August 25th. This morning, the officer in charge of our house
went off beyond the point a fishing, in a small canoe, with two
Kanakas; and we were sitting quietly in our room at the hide-house,
when, just before noon, we heard a complete yell of "Sail ho!" breaking
out from all parts of the beach, at once,--from the Kanakas' oven to
the Rosa's house. In an instant, every one was out of his house; and
there was a fine, tall ship, with royals and skysails set, bending over
before the strong afternoon breeze, and coming rapidly round the point.
Her yards were braced sharp up; every sail was set, and drew well; the
Yankee ensign was flying from her mizen-peak; and having the tide in
her favor, she came up like a race-horse. It was nearly six months
since a new vessel had entered San Diego, and of course, every one was
on the qui-vive. She certainly made a fine appearance. Her light sails
were taken in, as she passed the low, sandy tongue of land, and clewing
up her head sails, she rounded handsomely to, under her mizen topsail,
and let go the anchor at about a cable's length from the shore. In a
few minutes, the topsail yards were manned, and all three of the
topsails furled at once. From the fore top-gallant yard, the men slid
down the stay to furl the jib, and from the mizen top-gallant yard, by
the stay, into the maintop, and thence to the yard; and the men on the
topsail yards came down the lifts to the yard-arms of the courses. The
sails were furled with great care, the bunts triced up by jiggers, and
the jibs stowed in cloth. The royal yards were then struck, tackles
got upon the yard-arms and the stay, the long-boat hoisted out, a large
anchor carried astern, and the ship moored. Then the captain's gig was
lowered away from the quarter, and a boat's crew of fine lads, between
the ages of fourteen and eighteen, pulled the captain ashore. The gig
was a light whale-boat, handsomely painted, and fitted up with
cushions, etc., 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 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,)
flush, fore and aft, and as white as snow, which the crew told us was
from constant use of holystones. There was no foolish gilding and
gingerbread work, to take the eye of landsmen and passengers, but
everything was "ship-shape and Bristol fashion." There was no rust, no
dirt, no rigging hanging slack, no fag ends of ropes and "Irish
pendants" aloft, and the yards were squared "to a t" by lifts and
braces.
The mate was a fine, hearty, noisy fellow, with a voice like a lion,
and always wide awake. He was "a man, every inch of him," as the
sailors 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, cook, etc., and twelve,
including boys, before the mast. She had, on board, seven thousand
hides, which she had collected at the windward, and also horns and
tallow. All these we began discharging, from both gangways at once,
into the two boats, the second mate having charge of the launch, and
the third mate of the pinnace. 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, Aug. 29th. Arrived, brig Catalina, from the windward.
Sunday, 30th. This was the first Sunday that the crew had been in 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 all the
crew, who could obtain liberty, went off to the Presidio and 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 forecastle, mending and washing their clothes,
and reading and writing. They told me that the ship stopped at Callao
in the passage out, and there lay three weeks. She had a passage of
little over eighty days from Boston to Callao, which is one of the
shortest on record. There, they left the Brandywine frigate, and other
smaller American ships of war, and the English frigate Blonde, and a
French seventy-four. From Callao they came directly to California, and
had visited every port on the coast, including San Francisco. The
forecastle in which they lived was large, tolerably well lighted by
bulls-eyes, 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 forecastle 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 spitbox always under the steps and
between the bits, and obliging every man to hang up his wet clothes,
etc. In addition to this, it was holystoned 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. Between these and the forecastle was the "between-decks," as
high as the gun deck of a frigate; being six feet and a half, under the
beams. These between-decks were holystoned regularly, and kept in the
most perfect order; the carpenter's bench and tools being in one part,
the sailmaker's in another, and boatswain's locker, with the spare
rigging, in a third. A part of the crew slept here, in hammocks swung
fore and aft from the beams, and triced up every morning. The sides of
the between-decks were clapboarded, the knees and stanchions of iron,
and the latter 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 great confidence in her as a "lucky ship." She was
seven years old, and had always been in the Canton trade, and never had
met with an accident of any consequence, and had never made a passage
that was not shorter than the average. The third mate, a young man of
about eighteen 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 more of her than 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 under weigh. 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 by 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.
CHAPTER XXIII
NEW SHIP AND SHIPMATES--MY WATCHMATE
Tuesday, Sept. 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
Pilgrim. After all hands were called, at day-break, three minutes and
a half were allowed for every man 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 a
general supervision, but not deigning to touch a bucket or a brush.
Inside and out, fore and aft, upper deck and between decks, steerage
and forecastle, rail, bulwarks, and water-ways, were washed, scrubbed
and scraped with brooms and canvas, and the decks were wet and sanded
all over, and then holystoned. The holystone is a large, soft stone,
smooth on the bottom, with long ropes attached to each end, by which
the crew keep it sliding fore and aft, over the wet, sanded decks.
Smaller hand-stones, which the sailors call "prayer-books," are used to
scrub in among the crevices and narrow places, where the large
holystone 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 swabs and squilgees; 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, larboard
quarter-boat, and gig,--each of which had a coxswain, who had charge of
it, and was answerable for the order and cleanness 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 man-rope stanchions; others, the steps of the forecastle
and hatchways, which were hauled up and holystoned. Each of these jobs
must be finished before breakfast; and, in the meantime, the rest of
the crew filled the scuttle-butt, and the cook scraped his kids (wooden
tubs out of which the sailors eat) and polished the hoops, and placed
them before the galley, to await inspection. When the decks were dry,
the lord paramount made his appearance on the quarter-deck, and took a
few turns, when 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, etc., stowed away; and, this
morning, preparations were made for getting under weigh. We paid out
on the chain by which we swung; hove in on the other; catted the
anchor; and hove 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 Pilgrim's, yet there
was a plenty of room to move about in, more discipline and system, more
men, and more good will. Every one seemed ambitious to do his best:
officers and men knew their duty, and all went well. As soon as she was
hove short, the mate, on the forecastle, gave the order to loose the