We Snapped Off Three
Flying-Jib Booms In Twenty-Four Hours, As Fast As They Could Be
Fitted And Rigged Out; Sprung The Spritsail Yard; And Made Nothing
Of Studding-Sail Booms.
Beside the natural desire to get home,
we had another reason for urging the ship on.
The scurvy had begun
to show itself on board. One man had it so badly as to be disabled
and off duty, and the English lad, Ben, was in a dreadful state,
and was daily growing worse. His legs swelled and pained him so
that he could not walk; his flesh lost its elasticity, so that if
it was pressed in, it would not return to its shape; and his gums
swelled until he could not open his mouth. His breath, too, became
very offensive; he lost all strength and spirit; could eat nothing;
grew worse every day; and, in fact, unless something was done for
him, would be a dead man in a week, at the rate at which he was
sinking. The medicines were all, or nearly all, gone; and if we had
had a chest-full, they would have been of no use; for nothing but
fresh provisions and terra firma has any effect upon the scurvy.
This disease is not so common now as formerly; and is attributed
generally to salt provisions, want of cleanliness, the free
use of grease and fat (which is the reason of its prevalence
among whalemen,) and, last of all, to laziness. It never could
have been from the latter cause on board our ship; nor from the
second, for we were a very cleanly crew, kept our forecastle in
neat order, and were more particular about washing and changing
clothes than many better-dressed people on shore. It was probably
from having none but salt provisions, and possibly from our having
run very rapidly into hot weather, after having been so long in
the extremest cold.
Depending upon the westerly winds, which prevail off the coast in
the autumn, the captain stood well to the westward, to run inside
of the Bermudas, and in the hope of falling in with some vessel
bound to the West Indies or the Southern States. The scurvy had
spread no farther among the crew, but there was danger that it
might; and these cases were bad ones.
Sunday, Sept. 11th. Lat. 30° 04' N., long. 63° 23' W.; the Bermudas
bearing north-north-west, distant one hundred and fifty miles.
The next morning, about ten o'clock, "Sail ho!" was cried on deck;
and all hands turned up to see the stranger. As she drew nearer,
she proved to be an ordinary-looking hermaphrodite brig, standing
south-south-east; and probably bound out, from the Northern States,
to the West Indies; and was just the thing we wished to see.
She hove-to for us, seeing that we wished to speak her; and we
ran down to her; boom-ended our studding-sails; backed our main
topsail, and hailed her - "Brig, ahoy!" - "Hallo!" - "Where are you
from, pray?" - "From New York, bound to Curaçoa." - "Have you any
fresh provisions to spare?" - "Aye, aye! plenty of them!" We
lowered away the quarter-boat, instantly; and the captain and
four hands sprang in, and were soon dancing over the water,
and alongside the brig. In about half an hour, they returned
with half a boat-load of potatoes and onions, and each vessel
filled away, and kept on her course. She proved to be the brig
Solon, of Plymouth, from the Connecticut river, and last from New
York, bound to the Spanish Main, with a cargo of fresh provisions,
mules, tin bake-pans, and other notions. The onions were genuine
and fresh; and the mate of the brig told the men in the boat, as he
passed the bunches over the side, that the girls had strung them
on purpose for us the day he sailed. We had supposed, on board,
that a new president had been chosen, the last winter, and, just
as we filled away, the captain hailed and asked who was president
of the United States. They answered, Andrew Jackson; but thinking
that the old General could not have been elected for a third time,
we hailed again, and they answered - Jack Downing; and left us to
correct the mistake at our leisure.
It was just dinner-time when we filled away; and the steward,
taking a few bunches of onions for the cabin, gave the rest to us,
with a bottle of vinegar. We carried them forward, stowed them
away in the forecastle, refusing to have them cooked, and ate
them raw, with our beef and bread. And a glorious treat they
were. The freshness and crispness of the raw onion, with the
earthy taste, give it a great relish to one who has been a long
time on salt provisions.
We were perfectly ravenous after them. It was like a scent
of blood to a hound. We ate them at every meal, by the dozen;
and filled our pockets with them, to eat in our watch on deck;
and the bunches, rising in the form of a cone, from the largest
at the bottom, to the smallest, no larger than a strawberry,
at the top, soon disappeared.
The chief use, however, of the fresh provisions, was for the men
with the scurvy. One of them was able to eat, and he soon brought
himself to, by gnawing upon raw potatoes; but the other, by this time,
was hardly able to open his mouth; and the cook took the potatoes raw,
pounded them in a mortar, and gave him the juice to drink. This
he swallowed, by the tea-spoonful at a time, and rinsed it about
his gums and throat. The strong earthy taste and smell of this
extract of the raw potato at first produced a shuddering through
his whole frame, and after drinking it, an acute pain, which ran
through all parts of his body; but knowing, by this, that it was
taking strong hold, he persevered, drinking a spoonful every hour
or so, and holding it a long time in his mouth; until, by the
effect of this drink, and of his own restored hope, (for he had
nearly given up, in despair) he became so well as to be able to
move about, and open his mouth enough to eat the raw potatoes and
onions pounded into a soft pulp.
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