Two Years Before the Mast
that height. The yard at length came down safe, and after it, the fore
and mizen royal-yards were sent down. All hands were then sent aloft,
and for an hour or two we were hard at work, making the booms well
fast; unreeving the studding-sail and royal and skysail gear; getting
rolling-ropes on the yards; setting up the weather breast-backstays;
and making other preparations for a storm. It was a fine night for a
gale; just cool and bracing enough for quick work, without being cold,
and as bright as day. It was sport to have a gale in such weather as
this. Yet it blew like a hurricane. The wind seemed to come with a
spite, an edge to it, which threatened to scrape us off the yards. The
mere force of the wind was greater than I had ever seen it before; but
darkness, cold, and wet are the worst parts of a storm to a sailor.
Having got on deck again, we looked round to see what time of night it
was, and whose watch. In a few minutes the man at the wheel struck
four bells, and we found that the other watch was out, and our own half
out. Accordingly, the starboard watch went below, and left the ship to
us for a couple of hours, yet with orders to stand by for a call.
Hardly had they got below, before away went the fore-topmast staysail,
blown to ribbons. This was a small sail, which we could manage in the
watch, so that we were not obliged to call up the other watch. We laid
out upon the bowsprit, where we were under water half the time, and
took in the fragments of the sail, and as she must have some head sail
on her, prepared to bend another staysail. We got the new one out,
into the nettings; seized on the tack, sheets, and halyards, and the
hanks; manned the halyards, cut adrift the frapping lines, and hoisted
away; but before it was half way up the stay, it was blown all to
pieces. When we belayed the halyards, there was nothing left but the
bolt-rope. Now large eyes began to show themselves in the foresail,
and knowing that it must soon go, the mate ordered us upon the yard to
furl it. Being unwilling to call up the watch who had been on deck all
night, he roused out the carpenter, sailmaker, cook, steward, and other
idlers, and, with their help, we manned the foreyard, and after nearly
half an hour's struggle, mastered the sail, and got it well furled
round the yard. The force of the wind had never been greater than at
this moment. In going up the rigging, it seemed absolutely to pin us
down to the shrouds; and on the yard, there was no such thing as
turning a face to windward. Yet here was no driving sleet, and
darkness, and wet, and cold, as off Cape Horn; and instead of a stiff
oil-cloth suit, south-wester caps, and thick boots, we had on hats,
round jackets, duck trowsers, light shoes, and everything light and
easy. All these things make a great difference to a sailor. When we
got on deck, the man at the wheel struck eight bells, (four o'clock in
the morning,) and "All starbowlines, ahoy!" brought the other watch up.
But there was no going below for us. The gale was now at its height,
"blowing like scissors and thumb-screws;" the captain was on deck; the
ship, which was light, rolling and pitching as though she would shake
the long sticks out of her; and the sail gaping open and splitting, in
every direction. The mizen topsail, which was a comparatively new
sail, and close-reefed, split, from head to foot, in the bunt; the
fore-topsail went, in one rent, from clew to earing, and was blowing to
tatters; one of the chain bobstays parted; the spritsail-yard sprung in
the slings; the martingale had slued away off to leeward; and, owing to
the long dry weather, the lee rigging hung in large bights, at every
lurch. One of the main top-gallant shrouds had parted; and, to crown
all, the galley had got adrift, and gone over to leeward, and the
anchor on the lee bow had worked loose, and was thumping the side.
Here was work enough for all hands for half a day. Our gang laid out
on the mizen topsail yard, and after more than half an hour's hard
work, furled the sail, though it bellied out over our heads, and again,
by a slant of the wind, blew in under the yard, with a fearful jerk,
and almost threw us off from the foot-ropes.
Double gaskets were passed round the yards, rolling tackles and other
gear bowsed taut, and everything made as secure as could be. Coming
down, we found the rest of the crew just coming down the fore rigging,
having furled the tattered topsail, or, rather, swathed it round the
yard, which looked like a broken limb, bandaged. There was no sail now
on the ship but the spanker and the close-reefed main topsail, which
still held good. But this was too much after sail; and order was given
to furl the spanker. The brails were hauled up, and all the light
hands in the starboard watch sent out on the gaff to pass the gaskets;
but they could do nothing with it. The second mate swore at them for a
parcel of "sogers," and sent up a couple of the best men; but they
could do no better, and the gaff was lowered down. All hands were now
employed in setting up the lee rigging, fishing the spritsail-yard,
lashing the galley, and getting tackles upon the martingale, to bowse
it to windward. Being in the larboard watch, my duty was forward, to
assist in setting up the martingale. Three of us were out on the
martingale guys and back-ropes for more than half an hour, carrying
out, hooking and unhooking the tackles, several times buried in the
seas, until the mate ordered us in, from fear of our being washed off.
The anchors were then to be taken up on the rail, which kept all hands
on the forecastle for an hour, though every now and then the seas broke
over it, washing the rigging off to leeward, filling the lee scuppers
breast high, and washing chock aft to the taffrail.
Having got everything secure again, we were promising ourselves some
breakfast, for it was now nearly nine o'clock in the forenoon, when the
main topsail showed evident signs of giving way. Some sail must be
kept on the ship, and the captain ordered the fore and main spencer
gaffs to be lowered down, and the two spencers (which were storm sails,
bran new, small, and made of the strongest canvas) to be got up and
bent; leaving the main topsail to blow away, with a blessing on it, if
it would only last until we could set the spencers. These we bent on
very carefully, with strong robands and seizings, and making tackles
fast to the clews, bowsed them down to the water-ways. By this time
the main topsail was among the things that have been, and we went aloft
to stow away the remnant of the last sail of all those which were on
the ship twenty-four hours before. The spencers were now the only
whole sails on the ship, and, being strong and small, and near the
deck, presenting but little surface to the wind above the rail,
promised to hold out well. Hove-to under these, and eased by having no
sail above the tops, the ship rose and fell, and drifted off to leeward
like a line-of-battle ship.
It was now eleven o'clock, and the watch was sent below to get
breakfast, and at eight bells (noon), as everything was snug, although
the gale had not in the least abated, the watch was set, and the other
watch and idlers sent below. For three days and three nights, the gale
continued with unabated fury, and with singular regularity. There was
no lulls, and very little variation in its fierceness. Our ship, being
light, rolled so as almost to send the fore yard-arm under water, and
drifted off bodily, to leeward. All this time there was not a cloud to
be seen in the sky, day or night;--no, not so large as a man's hand.
Every morning the sun rose cloudless from the sea, and set again at
night, in the sea, in a flood of light. The stars, too, came out of
the blue, one after another, night after night, unobscured, and
twinkled as clear as on a still frosty night at home, until the day
came upon them. All this time, the sea was rolling in immense surges,
white with foam, as far as the eye could reach, on every side, for we
were now leagues and leagues from shore.
The between-decks being empty, several of us slept there in hammocks,
which are the best things in the world to sleep in during a storm; it
not being true of them, as it is of another kind of bed, "when the wind
blows, the cradle will rock;" for it is the ship that rocks, while they
always hang vertically from the beams. During these seventy-two hours
we had nothing to do, but to turn in and out, four hours on deck, and
four below, eat, sleep, and keep watch. The watches were only varied by
taking the helm in turn, and now and then, by one of the sails, which
were furled, blowing out of the gaskets, and getting adrift, which sent
us up on the yards; and by getting tackles on different parts of the
rigging, which were slack. Once, the wheel-rope parted, which might
have been fatal to us, had not the chief mate sprung instantly with a
relieving tackle to windward, and kept the tiller up, till a new one
could be rove. On the morning of the twentieth, at daybreak, the gale
had evidently done its worst, and had somewhat abated; so much so, that
all hands were called to bend new sails, although it was still blowing
as hard as two common gales. One at a time, and with great difficulty
and labor, the old sails were unbent and sent down by the bunt-lines,
and three new topsails, made for the homeward passage round Cape Horn,
and which had never been bent, were got up from the sailroom, and under
the care of the sailmaker, were fitted for bending, and sent up by the
halyards into the tops, and, with stops and frapping lines, were bent
to the yards, close-reefed, sheeted home, and hoisted. These were done
one at a time, and with the greatest care and difficulty. Two spare
courses were then got up and bent in the same manner and furled, and a
storm-jib, with the bonnet off, bent and furled to the boom. It was
twelve o'clock before we got through; and five hours of more exhausting
labor I never experienced; and no one of that ship's crew, I will
venture to say, will ever desire again to unbend and bend five large
sails, in the teeth of a tremendous north-wester. Towards night, a few
clouds appeared in the horizon, and as the gale moderated, the usual
appearance of driving clouds relieved the face of the sky. The fifth
day after the commencement of the storm, we shook a reef out of each
topsail, and set the reefed foresail, jib and spanker; but it was not
until after eight days of reefed topsails that we had a whole sail on
the ship; and then it was quite soon enough, for the captain was
anxious to make up for leeway, the gale having blown us half the
distance to the Sandwich Islands.
Inch by inch, as fast as the gale would permit, we made sail on the
ship, for the wind still continued a-head, and we had many days'
sailing to get back to the longitude we were in when the storm took us.
For eight days more we beat to windward under a stiff top-gallant
breeze, when the wind shifted and became variable. A light
south-easter, to which we could carry a reefed topmast studding-sail,
did wonders for our dead reckoning.
Friday, December 4th, after a passage of twenty days, we arrived at the
mouth of the bay of San Francisco.
CHAPTER XXVI
SAN FRANCISCO--MONTEREY
Our place of destination had been Monterey, but as we were to the
northward of it when the wind hauled a-head, we made a fair wind for
San Francisco. This large bay, which lies in latitude 37° 58', was
discovered by Sir Francis Drake, and by him represented to be (as
indeed it is) a magnificent bay, containing several good harbors, great
depth of water, and surrounded by a fertile and finely wooded country.
About thirty miles from the mouth of the bay, and on the south-east