Two Years Before the Mast
steward, to help us. I could now account for the long time it took to
pass the other earings, for, to do my best, with a strong hand to help
me at the dog's ear, I could not get it passed until I heard them
beginning to complain in the bunt. One reef after another we took in,
until the sail was close-reefed, when we went down and hoisted away at
the halyards. In the mean time, the jib had been furled and the
staysail set, and the ship, under her reduced sail, had got more
upright and was under management; but the two top-gallant sails were
still hanging in the buntlines, and slatting and jerking as though they
would take the masts out of her. We gave a look aloft, and knew that
our work was not done yet; and, sure enough, no sooner did the mate see
that we were on deck, than--"Lay aloft there, four of you, and furl the
top-gallant sails!" This called me again, and two of us went aloft, up
the fore rigging, and two more up the main, upon the top-gallant yards.
The shrouds were now iced over, the sleet having formed a crust or cake
round all the standing rigging, and on the weather side of the masts
and yards. When we got upon the yard, my hands were so numb that I
could not have cast off the knot of the gasket to have saved my life.
We both lay over the yard for a few seconds, beating our hands upon the
sail, until we started the blood into our fingers' ends, and at the
next moment our hands were in a burning heat. My companion on the yard
was a lad, who came out in the ship a weak, puny boy, from one of the
Boston schools,--"no larger than a spritsail sheet knot," nor "heavier
than a paper of lamp-black," and "not strong enough to haul a shad off
a gridiron," but who was now "as long as a spare topmast, strong enough
to knock down an ox, and hearty enough to eat him." We fisted the sail
together, and after six or eight minutes of hard hauling and pulling
and beating down the sail, which was as stiff as sheet iron, we managed
to get it furled; and snugly furled it must be, for we knew the mate
well enough to be certain that if it got adrift again, we should be
called up from our watch below, at any hour of the night, to furl it.
I had been on the look-out for a moment to jump below and clap on a
thick jacket and south-wester; but when we got on deck we found that
eight bells had been struck, and the other watch gone below, so that
there were two hours of dog watch for us, and a plenty of work to do.
It had now set in for a steady gale from the south-west; but we were
not yet far enough to the southward to make a fair wind of it, for we
must give Terra del Fuego a wide berth. The decks were covered with
snow, and there was a constant driving of sleet. In fact, Cape Horn had
set in with good earnest. In the midst of all this, and before it
became dark, we had all the studding-sails to make up and stow away,
and then to lay aloft and rig in all the booms, fore and aft, and coil
away the tacks, sheets, and halyards. This was pretty tough work for
four or five hands, in the face of a gale which almost took us off the
yards, and with ropes so stiff with ice that it was almost impossible
to bend them. I was nearly half an hour out on the end of the fore
yard, trying to coil away and stop down the topmast studding-sail tack
and lower halyards. It was after dark when we got through, and we were
not a little pleased to hear four bells struck, which sent us below for
two hours, and gave us each a pot of hot tea with our cold beef and
bread, and, what was better yet, a suit of thick, dry clothing, fitted
for the weather, in place of our thin clothes, which were wet through
and now frozen stiff.
This sudden turn, for which we were so little prepared, was as
unacceptable to me as to any of the rest; for I had been troubled for
several days with a slight tooth-ache, and this cold weather, and
wetting and freezing, were not the best things in the world for it.
I soon found that it was getting strong hold, and running over all
parts of my face; and before the watch was out I went aft to the mate,
who had charge of the medicine-chest, to get something for it.
But the chest showed like the end of a long voyage, for there was
nothing that would answer but a few drops of laudanum, which must be
saved for any emergency; so I had only to bear the pain as well as I
could.
When we went on deck at eight bells, it had stopped snowing, and there
were a few stars out, but the clouds were still black, and it was
blowing a steady gale. Just before midnight, I went aloft and sent
down the mizen royal yard, and had the good luck to do it to the
satisfaction of the mate, who said it was done "out of hand and
ship-shape." The next four hours below were but little relief to me,
for I lay awake in my berth, the whole time, from the pain in my face,
and heard every bell strike, and, at four o'clock, turned out with the
watch, feeling little spirit for the hard duties of the day.
Bad weather and hard work at sea can be borne up against very well, if
one only has spirit and health; but there is nothing brings a man down,
at such a time, like bodily pain and want of sleep.
There was, however, too much to do to allow time to think; for the gale
of yesterday, and the heavy seas we met with a few days before, while
we had yet ten degrees more southing to make, had convinced the captain
that we had something before us which was not to be trifled with, and
orders were given to send down the long top-gallant masts. The
top-gallant and royal yards were accordingly struck, the flying
jib-boom rigged in, and the top-gallant masts sent down on deck, and
all lashed together by the side of the long-boat.
The rigging was then sent down and coiled away below, and everything
was made snug aloft. There was not a sailor in the ship who was not
rejoiced to see these sticks come down; for, so long as the yards were
aloft, on the least sign of a lull, the top-gallant sails were loosed,
and then we had to furl them again in a snow-squall, and shin up and
down single ropes caked with ice, and send royal yards down in the
teeth of a gale coming right from the south pole. It was an
interesting sight, too, to see our noble ship, dismantled of all her
top-hamper of long tapering masts and yards, and boom pointed with
spear-head, which ornamented her in port; and all that canvas, which a
few days before had covered her like a cloud, from the truck to the
water's edge, spreading far out beyond her hull on either side, now
gone; and she, stripped, like a wrestler for the fight. It
corresponded, too, with the desolate character of her
situation;--alone, as she was, battling with storms, wind, and ice, at
this extremity of the globe, and in almost constant night.
Friday, July 1st. We were now nearly up to the latitude of Cape Horn,
and having over forty degrees of easting to make, we squared away the
yards before a strong westerly gale, shook a reef out of the
fore-topsail, and stood on our way, east-by-south, with the prospect of
being up with the Cape in a week or ten days. As for myself, I had had
no sleep for forty-eight hours; and the want of rest, together with
constant wet and cold, had increased the swelling, so that my face was
nearly as large as two, and I found it impossible to get my mouth open
wide enough to eat. In this state, the steward applied to the captain
for some rice to boil for me, but he only got a--"No! d--- you! Tell
him to eat salt junk and hard bread, like the rest of them." For this,
of course, I was much obliged to him, and in truth it was just what I
expected. However, I did not starve, for the mate, who was a man as
well as a sailor, and had always been a good friend to me, smuggled a
pan of rice into the galley, and told the cook to boil it for me, and
not let the "old man" see it. Had it been fine weather, or in port, I
should have gone below and lain by until my face got well; but in such
weather as this, and short-handed as we were, it was not for me to
desert my post; so I kept on deck, and stood my watch and did my duty
as well as I could.
Saturday, July 2nd. This day the sun rose fair, but it ran too low in
the heavens to give any heat, or thaw out our sails and rigging; yet
the sight of it was pleasant; and we had a steady "reef topsail breeze"
from the westward. The atmosphere, which had previously been clear and
cold, for the last few hours grew damp, and had a disagreeable, wet
chilliness in it; and the man who came from the wheel said he heard the
captain tell "the passenger" that the thermometer had fallen several
degrees since morning, which he could not account for in any other way
than by supposing that there must be ice near us; though such a thing
had never been heard of in this latitude, at this season of the year.
At twelve o'clock we went below, and had just got through dinner, when
the cook put his head down the scuttle and told us to come on deck and
see the finest sight that we had ever seen. "Where away, cook?" asked
the first man who was up. "On the larboard bow." And there lay,
floating in the ocean, several miles off, an immense, irregular mass,
its top and points covered with snow, and its center of a deep indigo
color.
This was an iceberg, and of the largest size, as one of our men said
who had been in the Northern ocean. As far as the eye could reach, the
sea in every direction was of a deep blue color, the waves running high
and fresh, and sparkling in the light, and in the midst lay this
immense mountain-island, its cavities and valleys thrown into deep
shade, and its points and pinnacles glittering in the sun.
All hands were soon on deck, looking at it, and admiring in various
ways its beauty and grandeur. But no description can give any idea of
the strangeness, splendor, and, really, the sublimity, of the sight.
Its great size;--for it must have been from two to three miles in
circumference, and several hundred feet in height;--its slow motion, as
its base rose and sank in the water, and its high points nodded against
the clouds; the dashing of the waves upon it, which, breaking high with
foam, lined its base with a white crust; and the thundering sound of
the cracking of the mass, and the breaking and tumbling down of huge
pieces; together with its nearness and approach, which added a slight
element of fear,--all combined to give to it the character of true
sublimity. The main body of the mass was, as I have said, of an indigo
color, its base crusted with frozen foam; and as it grew thin and
transparent toward the edges and top, its color shaded off from a deep
blue to the whiteness of snow.
It seemed to be drifting slowly toward the north, so that we kept away
and avoided it. It was in sight all the afternoon; and when we got to
leeward of it, the wind died away, so that we lay-to quite near it for
a greater part of the night. Unfortunately, there was no moon, but it
was a clear night, and we could plainly mark the long, regular heaving
of the stupendous mass, as its edges moved slowly against the stars.
Several times in our watch loud cracks were heard, which sounded as
though they must have run through the whole length of the iceberg, and
several pieces fell down with a thundering crash, plunging heavily into
the sea. Toward morning, a strong breeze sprang up, and we filled
away, and left it astern, and at daylight it was out of sight. The
next day, which was
Sunday, July 3d, the breeze continued strong, the air exceedingly
chilly, and the thermometer low. In the course of the day we saw
several icebergs, of different sizes, but none so near as the one which
we saw the day before. Some of them, as well as we could judge, at the
distance at which we were, must have been as large as that, if not