Customs and habits of life new to us, and descriptions
of life under new aspects, act upon the inexperienced through the
imagination, so that we are hardly aware of our want of technical
knowledge. Thousands read the escape of the American frigate
through the British channel, and the chase and wreck of the Bristol
trader in the Red Rover, and follow the minute nautical manoeuvres
with breathless interest, who do not know the name of a rope in the
ship; and perhaps with none the less admiration and enthusiasm for
their want of acquaintance with the professional detail.
In preparing this narrative I have carefully avoided incorporating
into it any impressions but those made upon me by the events as
they occurred, leaving to my concluding chapter, to which I shall
respectfully call the reader's attention, those views which have
been suggested to me by subsequent reflection.
These reasons, and the advice of a few friends, have led me to give this
narrative to the press. If it shall interest the general reader, and
call more attention to the welfare of seamen, or give any information
as to their real condition, which may serve to raise them in the rank
of beings, and to promote in any measure their religious and moral
improvement, and diminish the hardships of their daily life, the end
of its publication will be answered.
R.H.D., Jr.
Boston, July, 1840.
CHAPTER I
DEPARTURE
The fourteenth of August was the day fixed upon for the sailing of
the brig Pilgrim on her voyage from Boston round Cape Horn to the
western coast of North America. As she was to get under weigh early
in the afternoon, I made my appearance on board at twelve o'clock,
in full sea-rig, and with my chest, containing an outfit for a two
or three year voyage, which I had undertaken from a determination
to cure, if possible, by an entire change of life, and by a long
absence from books and study, a weakness of the eyes, which had
obliged me to give up my pursuits, and which no medical aid seemed
likely to cure.
The change from the tight dress coat, silk cap, and kid gloves of an
undergraduate at Cambridge, to the loose duck trowsers, checked shirt
and tarpaulin hat of a sailor, though somewhat of a transformation,
was soon made, and I supposed that I should pass very well for a
jack tar. But it is impossible to deceive the practised eye in
these matters; and while I supposed myself to be looking as salt
as Neptune himself, I was, no doubt, known for a landsman by every
one on board as soon as I hove in sight. A sailor has a peculiar
cut to his clothes, and a way of wearing them which a green hand
can never get.
