Two Years Before the Mast
different periods of the stowing, and parties ran high in the
forecastle, some siding with "old Bill" in favor of the former, and
others scouting him, and relying upon "English Bob" of the Ayacucho,
who had been eight years in California, and was willing to risk his
life and limb for the latter method. At length a compromise was
effected, and a middle course, of shifting the ends and backs at every
lay, was adopted, which worked well, and which, though they held it
inferior to their own, each party granted was better than that of the
other.
Having filled the ship up, in this way, to within four feet of her
beams, the process of steeving commenced, by which an hundred hides are
got into a place where one could not be forced by hand, and which
presses the hides to the utmost, sometimes starting the beams of the
ship, resembling in its effects the jack-screws which are used in
stowing cotton. Each morning we went ashore, and beat and brought off
as many hides as we could steeve in the course of the day, and, after
breakfast, went down into the hold, where we remained at work until
night. The whole length of the hold, from stem to stern, was floored
off level, and we began with raising a pile in the after part, hard
against the bulkhead of the run, and filling it up to the beams,
crowding in as many as we could by hand and pushing in with oars; when
a large "book" was made of from twenty-five to fifty hides, doubled at
the backs, and put into one another, like the leaves of a book. An
opening was then made between two hides in the pile, and the back of
the outside hide of the book inserted. Two long, heavy spars, called
steeves, made of the strongest wood, and sharpened off like a wedge at
one end, were placed with their wedge ends into the inside of the hide
which was the centre of the book, and to the other end of each, straps
were fitted, into which large tackles were hooked, composed each of two
huge purchase blocks, one hooked to the strap on the end of the steeve,
and the other into a dog, fastened into one of the beams, as far aft as
it could be got. When this was arranged, and the ways greased upon
which the book was to slide, the falls of the tackles were stretched
forward, and all hands tallied on, and bowsed away until the book was
well entered; when these tackles were nippered, straps and toggles
clapped upon the falls, and two more luff tackles hooked on, with dogs,
in the same manner; and thus, by luff upon luff, the power was
multiplied, until into a pile in which one hide more could not be
crowded by hand, an hundred or an hundred and fifty were often driven
in by this complication of purchases. When the last luff was hooked
on, all hands were called to the rope--cook, steward, and all--and
ranging ourselves at the falls, one behind the other, sitting down on
the hides, with our heads just even with the beams, we set taut upon
the tackles, and striking up a song, and all lying back at the chorus,
we bowsed the tackles home, and drove the large books chock in out of
sight.
The sailor's songs for capstans and falls are of a peculiar kind,
having a chorus at the end of each line. The burden is usually sung,
by one alone, and, at the chorus, all hands join in,--and the louder
the noise, the better. With us, the chorus seemed almost to raise the
decks of the ship, and might be heard at a great distance, ashore. A
song is as necessary to sailors as the drum and fife to a soldier.
They can't pull in time, or pull with a will, without it. Many a time,
when a thing goes heavy, with one fellow yo-ho-ing, a lively song, like
"Heave, to the girls!" "Nancy oh!" "Jack Cross-tree," etc., has put
life and strength into every arm. We often found a great difference in
the effect of the different songs in driving in the hides. Two or
three songs would be tried, one after the other; with no effect;--not
an inch could be got upon the tackles--when a new song, struck up,
seemed to hit the humor of the moment, and drove the tackles "two
blocks" at once. "Heave round hearty!" "Captain gone ashore!" and the
like, might do for common pulls, but in an emergency, when we wanted a
heavy, "raise-the-dead" pull, which should start the beams of the ship,
there was nothing like "Time for us to go!" "Round the corner," or
"Hurrah! hurrah! my hearty bullies!"
This was the most lively part of our work. A little boating and beach
work in the morning; then twenty or thirty men down in a close hold,
where we were obliged to sit down and slide about, passing hides, and
rowsing about the great steeves, tackles, and dogs, singing out at the
falls, and seeing the ship filling up every day. The work was as hard
as it could well be. There was not a moment's cessation from Monday
morning till Saturday night, when we were generally beaten out, and
glad to have a full night's rest, a wash and shift of clothes, and a
quiet Sunday. During all this time,--which would have startled Dr.
Graham--we lived upon almost nothing but fresh beef; fried beefsteaks,
three times a day,--morning, noon, and night. At morning and night we
had a quart of tea to each man; and an allowance of about a pound of
hard bread a day; but our chief article of food was the beef. A mess,
consisting of six men, had a large wooden kid piled up with beefsteaks,
cut thick, and fried in fat, with the grease poured over them. Round
this we sat, attacking it with our jack-knives and teeth, and with the
appetite of young lions, and sent back an empty kid to the galley.
This was done three times a day. How many pounds each man ate in a
day, I will not attempt to compute. A whole bullock (we ate liver and
all) lasted us but four days. Such devouring of flesh, I will venture
to say, was seldom known before. What one man ate in a day, over a
hearty man's allowance, would make a Russian's heart leap into his
mouth. Indeed, during all the time we were upon the coast, our
principal food was fresh beef, and every man had perfect health; but
this was a time of especial devouring; and what we should have done
without meat, I cannot tell. Once or twice, when our bullocks failed
and we were obliged to make a meal upon dry bread and water, it seemed
like feeding upon shavings. Light and dry, feeling unsatisfied, and,
at the same time, full, we were glad to see four quarters of a bullock,
just killed, swinging from the fore-top. Whatever theories may be
started by sedentary men, certainly no men could have gone through more
hard work and exposure for sixteen months in more perfect health, and
without ailings and failings, than our ship's crew, let them have lived
upon Hygeia's own baking and dressing.
Friday, April 15th. Arrived, brig Pilgrim, from the windward. It was a
sad sight for her crew to see us getting ready to go off the coast,
while they, who had been longer on the coast than the Alert, were
condemned to another year's hard service. I spent an evening on board,
and found them making the best of the matter, and determined to rough
it out as they might; but my friend S---- was determined to go home in
the ship, if money or interest could bring it to pass. After
considerable negotiating and working, he succeeded in persuading my
English friend, Tom Harris,--my companion in the anchor watch--for
thirty dollars, some clothes, and an intimation from Captain Faucon
that he should want a second mate before the voyage was up, to take his
place in the brig as soon as she was ready to go up to windward.
The first opportunity I could get to speak to Captain Faucon, I asked
him to step up to the oven and look at Hope, whom he knew well, having
had him on board his vessel. He went to see him, but said that he had
so little medicine, and expected to be so long on the coast, that he
could do nothing for him, but that Captain Arthur would take care of
him when he came down in the California, which would be in a week or
more. I had been to see Hope the first night after we got into San
Diego this last time, and had frequently since spent the early part of
a night in the oven. I hardly expected, when I left him to go to
windward, to find him alive upon my return. He was certainly as low as
he could well be when I left him, and what would be the effect of the
medicines that I gave him, I hardly then dared to conjecture. Yet I
knew that he must die without them. I was not a little rejoiced,
therefore, and relieved, upon our return, to see him decidedly better.
The medicines were strong, and took hold and gave a check to the
disorder which was destroying him; and, more than that, they had begun
the work of exterminating it. I shall never forget the gratitude that
he expressed. All the Kanakas attributed his escape solely to my
knowledge, and would not be persuaded that I had not all the secrets of
the physical system open to me and under my control. My medicines,
however, were gone, and no more could be got from the ship, so that his
life was left to hang upon the arrival of the California.
Sunday, April 24th. We had now been nearly seven weeks in San Diego,
and had taken in the greater part of our cargo, and were looking out,
every day, for the arrival of the California, which had our agent on
board; when, this afternoon, some Kanakas, who had been over the hill
for rabbits and to fight rattlesnakes, came running down the path,
singing out, "Kail ho!" with all their might. Mr. H., our third mate,
was ashore, and asking them particularly about the size of the sail,
etc., and learning that it was "Moku--Nui Moku," hailed our ship, and
said that the California was on the other side of the point.
Instantly, all hands were turned up, the bow guns run out and loaded,
the ensign and broad pennant set, the yards squared by lifts and
braces, and everything got ready to make a good appearance. The
instant she showed her nose round the point, we began our salute. She
came in under top-gallant sails, clewed up and furled her sails in good
order, and came-to, within good swinging distance of us. It being
Sunday, and nothing to do, all hands were on the forecastle,
criticising the new-comer. She was a good, substantial ship, not quite
so long as the Alert, and wall-sided and kettle-bottomed, after the
latest fashion of south-shore cotton and sugar wagons; strong, too, and
tight, and a good average sailor, but with no pretensions to beauty,
and nothing in the style of a "crack ship." Upon the whole, we were
perfectly satisfied that the Alert might hold up her head with a ship
twice as smart as she.
At night, some of us got a boat and went on board, and found a large,
roomy forecastle, (for she was squarer forward than the Alert,) and a
crew of a dozen or fifteen men and boys, sitting around on their
chests, smoking and talking, and ready to give a welcome to any of our
ship's company. It was just seven months since they left Boston, which
seemed but yesterday to us. Accordingly, we had much to ask, for
though we had seen the newspapers that she brought, yet these were the
very men who had been in Boston and seen everything with their own
eyes. One of the green-hands was a Boston boy, from one of the public
schools, and, of course, knew many things which we wished to ask about,
and on inquiring the names of our two Boston boys, found that they had
been schoolmates of his. Our men had hundreds of questions to ask
about Ann street, the boarding-houses, the ships in port, the rate of
wages, and other matters.
Among her crew were two English man-of-war's-men, so that, of course,
we soon had music. They sang in the true sailor's style, and the rest
of the crew, which was a remarkably musical one, joined in the
choruses. They had many of the latest sailor songs, which had not yet
got about among our merchantmen, and which they were very choice of.