Part 3 (1/2)
”But by and by I came to my senses, and, upon discovering that the bad usage I received was partly my own fault, I stopped lamenting over my unhappy condition, and began to show more spirit. Would you believe it?
I had actually been in the vessel five days before I had curiosity enough to inquire her name. They told me that it was called the _Blackbird_; but what ever possessed anybody to give it such a ridiculous name I never could imagine. If they had called it Black Duck, or Black Diver, there would have been some sense in it, for the s.h.i.+p was driving head foremost into the water pretty much all the time. But I found out that the vessel was not exactly a s.h.i.+p after all, but a sort of half schooner, half brig,--what they call a brigantine, having two masts, a mainmast and a foremast. On the former there was a sail running fore and aft, just like the sail of the little yacht _Alice_, and on the latter there was a foresail, a foretop-sail, a foretop-gallant-sail, and a fore-royal-sail,--all of course square sails, that is, running across the vessel, and fastened to what are called yards. The vessel was painted jet-black on the outside, but inside the bulwarks the color was a dirty sort of green.
”Such, as nearly I can remember, was the brigantine _Blackbird_, three hundred and forty-two tons register. Brigantine is, however, too large a word; so when we pay the _Blackbird_ the compliment of mentioning her, we will call her a s.h.i.+p.
”Having picked up the name of the s.h.i.+p, I was tempted to pursue my inquiries further, and it was not long before I had got quite a respectable stock of seaman's knowledge, and hence I grew in favor. I learned to distinguish between a 'halyard,' which is rope for pulling the yards up and letting them down, from a 'brace,' which is used to pull them around so as to 'trim the sails,' and a 'sheet,' which is a rope for keeping the sails in their proper places. I found out that what I called a floor the sailors called a 'deck'; a kitchen they called a 'galley'; a pot, a 'copper'; a pulley was a 'block'; a post was a 'stancheon'; to fall down was to 'heel over'; to climb up was to 'go aloft'; and to walk straight, and keep one's balance when the s.h.i.+p was pitching over the waves, was to 'get your sea legs on.' I found out, too, that everything behind you was 'abaft,' and everything ahead was 'forwards,' or for'ad as the sailors say; that a large rope was a 'hawser,' and that every other rope was a 'line'; to make anything temporarily secure was to 'belay' it; to make one thing fast to another was to 'bend it on'; and when two things were close together, they were 'chock-a-block.' I learned, also, that the right-hand side of the vessel was the 'starboard' side, while the left-hand side was the 'port' or 'larboard' side; that the lever which moves the rudder that steers the s.h.i.+p was called the 'helm,' and that to steer the s.h.i.+p was to take 'a trick at the wheel'; that to 'put the helm up' was to turn it in the direction from which the wind was coming (windward), and to 'put the helm down' was to turn it in the direction the wind was going (leeward).
I found out still further, that a s.h.i.+p has a 'waist,' like a woman, a 'forefoot,' like a beast, besides 'bull's eyes' (which are small holes with gla.s.s in them to admit light), and 'cat-heads,' and 'monkey-rails,'
and 'cross-trees,' as well as 'saddles' and 'bridles' and 'harness,' and many other things which I thought I should never hear anything more of after I left the farm. I might go on and tell you a great many more things that I learned, but I should only tire your patience without doing any good. I only want to show you how John Hardy began his marine education.
”When it was discovered how much I had improved, they proposed immediately to turn it to their own account; for I was at once sent to take 'a trick at the wheel,' from which I came away, after two hours'
hard work, with my hands dreadfully blistered, and my legs bruised, and with the recollection of much abusive language from the red-faced mate, who could never see anything right in what I did. I gave him, however, some good reason this time to abuse me, and I was glad of it afterwards, though I was badly enough scared at the time. I steered the s.h.i.+p so badly that a wave which I ought to have avoided by a skilful turn of the wheel, came breaking in right over the quarter-deck, wetting the mate from head to foot. He thought I did it on purpose (which you may be sure I did not do). Again his face grew red enough to s.h.i.+ne of a dark night, and his mind invented hard words faster than his tongue would let them out of his ugly throat.
”I tell you all this, that you may have some idea of what a s.h.i.+p is, and how sailors live, and what they have to do. You can easily see that they have no easy time of it, and, let me tell you, there isn't a bit of romance about it, except the stories that are cut out of whole cloth to make books and songs of. However, I never could have much sympathy for my s.h.i.+pmates in the _Blackbird_; for if they did treat me a little better when they found that I could do something, especially when I could take a trick at the wheel, I still continued to look upon them as little better than a set of pirates, and I felt satisfied that, if they were not born to be hanged, they would certainly drown.”
”I don't think I'll be a sailor,” said Fred.
”Nor I either,” said William. ”But, Captain,” continued the cunning fellow, ”if a sailor's life is so miserable, what do you go to sea so much for?”
”Well, now, my lad,” replied the Captain, evidently at first a little puzzled, ”that's a question that would require more time to explain than we have to devote to it to-day. Besides” (he was fully recovered now), ”you know that going to sea in the cabin is as different from going to sea in the forecastle as you are from a Yahoo Indian. But never mind that, I must get on with my story, or it will never come to an end. I've hardly begun it yet.”
CHAPTER V.
In which the Ancient Mariner, continuing his Story, borrows an Ill.u.s.tration from the ”Ancient Mariner”
of Song, and then proceeds to tell how they went into the Cold, and were cast away there.
”'And now there came both mist and snow, And it grew wondrous cold: And ice mast-high came floating by, As green as emerald.'
”I recite this from a famous poem because it suits so well what came of us, for you must understand that, while all I have been telling you was going on, we were approaching the northern regions, and were getting into the sea where ice was to be expected. A man was accordingly kept aloft all the time to look out for it: for you will remember that we were going after seals, and it is on the ice that the seals are found.
The weather now became very cold, it being the month of April.
”At length the man aloft cried out that he saw ice. 'Where away?'
shouted the red-faced mate. 'Off the larboard bow,' was the answer. So the course of the s.h.i.+p was changed, and we bore right down upon the ice, and very soon it was in sight from the deck, and gradually became more and more distinct. It was a very imposing sight. The sea was covered all over with it, as far as the eye could reach,--a great plain of whiteness, against the edge of which the waves were breaking and sending the spray flying high in the air and sending to our ears that same dull, heavy roar which the breakers make when beating on the land.
”As we neared this novel scene, I observed that it consisted mostly of flat ma.s.ses of ice, of various sizes (called by the sealers 'floes'); some were miles in extent, and others only a few feet. The surface of these ice floes or fields rose only about a foot or so above the surface of the water. Between them there were in many places very broad openings, and when I went aloft and looked ahead, these ice-fields appeared like a great collection of large and small flat white islands, dotted about in the midst of the ocean. Through these openings between the fields the s.h.i.+p was immediately steered, and we were soon surrounded by ice on every side. To the south, whence we had come, there was in an hour or so apparently just as much ice as there was before us to the north, or to the right and left of us,--a vast immeasurable waste of ice it was, looking dreary and frightful enough, I can a.s.sure you.
”I have said that the pieces of ice now about us were called 'floes,' or ice-fields; the whole together was called 'the pack.' We were now in perfectly smooth water, for you will easily understand that the ice which we had pa.s.sed broke the swell of the sea. But the crew of the s.h.i.+p did not give themselves much concern about the ice itself; for it was soon discovered that the floes were covered in many places with seals.
”Now you must understand that seals are not fish, but are air-breathing, warm-blooded animals, like horses and cows, and therefore they must always have their heads, or at least their noses, out of water when they breathe. When the weather is cold, they remain in the water all the time, merely putting up their noses now and then (for they can remain a long time under water without breathing) to sniff a little fresh air, and then going quickly down again. In the warm weather, however, they come up bodily out of the sea, and bask and go to sleep in the sun, either on the land or on the ice. Many thousands of them are often seen together.
”As we came farther and farther into the 'pack,' the seals on the ice were observed to be more and more numerous. Most of them appeared to be sound asleep; some of them were wriggling about, or rolling themselves over and over, while none of them seemed to have the least idea that we had come all the way from New Bedford to rob them of their sleek coats and their nice fat blubber.
”We were now fairly into our 'harvest-field,' and when a suitable place was discovered the s.h.i.+p was brought up into the wind, that is, the helm was so turned as to bring the s.h.i.+p's head towards the wind, when of course the sails got 'aback,' and the s.h.i.+p stopped. Then a boat was lowered, and a crew, of which I was one, got into it, with the end of a very long rope, and we pulled away towards the edge of a large ice-field, hauling out the rope after us, of course, from the coil on s.h.i.+pboard. As we approached the ice, the seals near by all became frightened, and floundered into the sea as quickly as they could, with a tremendous splash. In a few minutes they all came up again, putting their cunning-looking heads out of the water, all around the boat, no doubt as curious to see what these singular-looking beings were that had come amongst them, as the Indians were about Columbus and his Spaniards, when they first came to America.
”As soon as we had reached the ice, we sprang out of the boat on to it, and, after digging a hole into it with a long, sharp bar of iron, called an ice-chisel, we put therein one end of a large, heavy, crooked hook, called an ice-anchor, and then to a ring in the other end of this ice-anchor we made fast the end of the rope that we had brought with us.
This done, we signalled to the people on board to 'haul in,' which they did on their end of the rope, and in a little while the s.h.i.+p was drawn close up to the ice. Then another rope was run out over the stern of the s.h.i.+p, and, this being made fast to an ice-anchor in the same way as the other, the s.h.i.+p was soon drawn up with her whole broadside close to the ice, as snug as if she were lying alongside of a dock in New Bedford.
”And now began the seal-hunt. It would not interest you to hear all about the preparations we made, first to catch the seals, and then to preserve the skins and try out the oil from the blubber, and put it away in barrels. For this latter duty some of the crew were selected, while others were sent off to kill and bring in the seals. These latter were chosen with a view to their activity, and I, being supposed to be of that sort, was one of the party. I was glad enough, I can a.s.sure you, to get off the vessel for once on to something firm and solid, even if it was only ice, and at least for a little while to have done with rocking and rolling about over the waves.
”Each one of the seal-catchers was armed with a short club for killing the seals, and a rope to drag them over the ice to the s.h.i.+p. We scattered in every direction, our object being each by himself to approach a group of seals, and, coming upon them as noiselessly as possible, to kill as many of them as we could before they should all take fright and rush into the sea. In order to do this, we were obliged to steal up between the seals and the water as far as possible.