His Boat's Crew Were A Pretty Raw Set,
Just Out Of The Bush, And As The Sailor's Phrase Is, "Hadn't
Got the
hayseed out of their hair." Captain Terry convinced our captain that
our reckoning was a little out, and,
Having spent the day on board,
put off in his boat at sunset for his ship, which was now six or
eight miles astern. He began a "yarn" when he came on board,
which lasted, with but little intermission, for four hours.
It was all about himself, and the Peruvian government, and the
Dublin frigate, and Lord James Townshend, and President Jackson,
and the ship Ann M'Kim of Baltimore. It would probably never have
come to an end, had not a good breeze sprung up, which sent him off
to his own vessel. One of the lads who came in his boat, a thoroughly
countrified-looking fellow, seemed to care very little about the vessel,
rigging, or anything else, but went round looking at the live stock,
and leaned over the pig-sty, and said he wished he was back again
tending his father's pigs.
At eight o'clock we altered our course to the northward, bound for
Juan Fernandez.
This day we saw the last of the albatrosses, which had been our
companions a great part of the time off the Cape. I had been
interested in the bird from descriptions which I had read of it,
and was not at all disappointed. We caught one or two with a
baited hook which we floated astern upon a shingle. Their long,
flapping wings, long legs, and large, staring eyes, give them a
very peculiar appearance. They look well on the wing; but one
of the finest sights that I have ever seen, was an albatross
asleep upon the water, during a calm, off Cape Horn, when a heavy
sea was running. There being no breeze, the surface of the water
was unbroken, but a long, heavy swell was rolling, and we saw the
fellow, all white, directly ahead of us, asleep upon the waves,
with his head under his wing; now rising on the top of a huge billow,
and then falling slowly until he was lost in the hollow between.
He was undisturbed for some time, until the noise of our bows,
gradually approaching, roused him, when, lifting his head, he stared
upon us for a moment, and then spread his wide wings and took his flight.
CHAPTER VI
LOSS OF A MAN - SUPERSTITION
Monday, Nov. 19th. This was a black day in our calendar. At seven
o'clock in the morning, it being our watch below, we were aroused
from a sound sleep by the cry of "All hands ahoy! a man overboard!"
This unwonted cry sent a thrill through the heart of every one,
and hurrying on deck we found the vessel hove flat aback, with all
her studding-sails set; for the boy who was at the helm left it to
throw something overboard, and the carpenter, who was an old sailor,
knowing that the wind was light, put the helm down and hove her aback.
The watch on deck were lowering away the quarter-boat, and I got on
deck just in time to heave myself into her as she was leaving the side;
but it was not until out upon the wide Pacific, in our little boat,
that I knew whom we had lost.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 30 of 324
Words from 15105 to 15673
of 170236
