The Alert, In Her Passage Out, Doubled The
Cape In The Month Of February, Which Is Midsummer; And We Came
Round In The Pilgrim In The Latter Part Of October, Which We
Thought Was Bad Enough.
There was only one of our crew who
had been off there in the winter, and that was in
A whaleship,
much lighter and higher than our ship; yet he said they had man-
killing weather for twenty days without intermission, and their
decks were swept twice, and they were all glad enough to see the
last of it. The Brandywine frigate, also, in her passage round,
had sixty days off the Cape, and lost several boats by the heavy
sea. All this was for our comfort; yet pass it we must; and all
hands agreed to make the best of it.
During our watches below we overhauled our clothes, and made and
mended everything for bad weather. Each of us had made for himself
a suit of oil-cloth or tarpaulin, and these we got out, and gave
thorough coatings of oil or tar, and hung upon the stays to dry.
Our stout boots, too, we covered over with a thick mixture
of melted grease and tar, and hung out to dry. Thus we took
advantage of the warm sun and fine weather of the Pacific to
prepare for its other face. In the forenoon watches below,
our forecastle looked like the workshop of what a sailor is, - a
Jack at all trades.
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