In This State
Of The Weather And Before Sunrise, In The Grey Of The Morning,
We Had To Wade Off, Nearly Up To Our Hips In Water, To Load
The Skiff With The Wood By Armsfull.
The third mate remained
on board the launch, two more men staid in the skiff, to load
and manage
It, and all the water-work, as usual, fell upon the
two youngest of us; and there we were, with frost on the ground,
wading forward and back, from the beach to the boat, with armsfull
of wood, barefooted, and our trowsers rolled up. When the skiff
went off with her load, we could only keep our feet from freezing
by racing up and down the beach on the hard sand, as fast as we
could go. We were all day at this work, and towards sundown,
having loaded the vessel as deep as she would bear, we hove up
our anchor, and made sail, beating out the bay. No sooner had
we got into the large bay, than we found a strong tide setting
us out to seaward, a thick fog which prevented our seeing the
ship, and a breeze too light to set us against the tide; for we
were as deep as a sand-barge. By the utmost exertions, we saved
ourselves from being carried out to sea, and were glad to reach the
leewardmost point of the island, where we came-to, and prepared
to pass another night, more uncomfortable than the first, for we
were loaded up to the gunwale, and had only a choice among logs
and sticks for a resting-place. The next morning, we made sail at
slack water, with a fair wind, and got on board by eleven o'clock,
when all hands were turned-to, to unload and stow away the wood,
which took till night.
Having now taken in all our wood, the next morning a water-party
was ordered off with all the casks. From this we escaped, having
had a pretty good siege with the wooding. The water-party were
gone three days, during which time they narrowly escaped being
carried out to sea, and passed one day on an island, where one
of them shot a deer, great numbers of which overrun the islands
and hills of San Francisco Bay.
While not off, on these wood and water parties, or up the rivers
to the missions, we had very easy times on board the ship. We were
moored, stem and stern, within a cable's length of the shore, safe
from south-easters, and with very little boating to do; and as it
rained nearly all the time, awnings were put over the hatchways,
and all hands sent down between decks, where we were at work,
day after day, picking oakum, until we got enough to caulk the ship
all over, and to last the whole voyage. Then we made a whole suit
of gaskets for the voyage home, a pair of wheel-ropes from strips
of green hide, great quantities of spun-yarn, and everything else
that could be made between decks.
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