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.
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