342 SKETCHES OF SEA-LIFE. 



markably seeing that we could get nothing but rock-salt to eat 

 them with. Supper is easily told. Salt horse-flesh, barley-meal 

 and saw-dust sea-biscuit, and each man a quart of a decoction of 

 some villainous herbs, a little " bewitched " with molasses. This, 

 Captain Howe, was the good living you promised us ! Yet in 

 New York you were thought to be decently honest ; some even 

 thought you to be temperate and gentlemanly ; but, alas ! how 

 speedily does the salt sea wash off a scaly virtue ! Your portly, 

 manly figure very much belied your moral qualities. 



But I must pass over several days, during which we had 

 steady, fair winds, and were constantly bowling along under all 

 our canvas, and with every stu'n-sail set. We were now on the 

 " Banks," groping on through that everlasting fog, which settles 

 like night on those dark shoals. Oh ! that driving, drizzling, 

 drenching air ! How many shivering, wretched hours have I 

 spent in it, so cold and damp ! Nothing is impervious to it. 

 Often have I cast off three and four dripping duplicates of ordi- 

 nary garments, and wrapped myself in as many wet blankets, to 

 enjoy a short oblivion of trouble and discomfort. It was on one 

 of these dismal nights, while we were on the Banks, just as our 

 watch, which had gone below wearied with hauling in studding 

 sails for several hours together, had fallen comfortably to sleep, 

 that we were suddenly startled by a loud cry at the door " all 

 hands ! shorten sail ! " As soon as possible we were out of our 

 bunks and hastening half dressed to the quarter deck. The wind, 

 which had risen during the night, was now blowing a gale, driv- 

 ing fiercely against us mingled sleet and spray. The sea was 

 capped with foam, and on its whitened surface our ship was 

 wildly plunging, careening her bulwarks almost to the water's 

 edge. " Hurry up here ! Hurry up here ! " roared the captain, 

 who was clinging to the mizzen shrouds to windward. " Clew 

 up the royals and top-gall'nt-s'ls ! Haul up the courses ! Lay up 

 and furl ! " And command followed fast on command, answered 

 ever by the hurried "Ay, ay, sir," till all sound was lost in the 

 din of flapping canvas and clattering ropes. I had been aloft 

 several times before ; and was now only awaiting an opportunity 

 to learn that first and hardest duty on ship-board, to furl a royal. 



