UNEASINESS OF OUR SHIP'S COMPANY. 377 



awhile, when the same scenes re-occur, and so alter- 

 nate daj after day. For ten days were we in irons, 

 (as seamen terra our situation,) during the whole of 

 w^iich time we made no more than ten degrees — an 

 average of two and a half miles per hour: a pace 

 that was far too slow to be easily endured by men 

 wlio had been for forty-four months past looking 

 forward to this passage with such intense interest. 

 Ko idea of the uneasiness (I can use no better word) 

 of the crew can be formed b}' a person who has never 

 witnessed a ship's company situated precisely as we 

 were. Every mile — every degree of the course was 

 accurately measured and counted. All who were 

 capable might have been seen, with quadrant in hand, 

 taking the sun's altitude, working up the ship's time, 

 comparing one day's run with another, and guessing 

 what the performance of the next twenty-four hours 

 would be ; whilst those not possessed of a quadrant 

 watched with peering e3'es for the moment that would 

 reveal the result of the operator's calculations. On 

 turning out, before donning their apparel, the first 

 questions of the watch below, were — how is the 

 wind? how many knots is she going? what is the 

 latitude? what the longitude? — all delivered in a 

 breath. If the answer was, " She is going along some 

 eight or nine knots an hour," the interrogator took 

 a long inspiration, thus evincing his relief and inward 

 satisfaction, and would then say, "Pull, girls, pull !" 

 But if the ship was plunging, and the spars and rig- 

 ging creaking from the pressure of their snow-white 

 pinions, he would be delighted ; and, jumping on 

 deck to assure himself that everythine; was drawine:, 

 he would chuckle forth, iu the height of his glee, 

 32* 



