92 FISHERMEN'S OWN BOOK. 



in the harbor with flag flying — and soon return with four or five thousand 

 stiffly frozen herring, which are hastily stored in the hold under straw to 

 prevent their thawing. A little before noon — the tide serving at that time— 

 we got underway and worked out of the harbor with a moderate southwest 

 wind. Aftei passing Eastern Point our course was shaped east by south, 

 and we went skipping away before the wind, leaving Brace's Cove, Bass 

 Rocks, and Thacher's Island with its two tall lighthouses, on our port hand; 

 while astern the snow-covered shores of Magnolia, and the more distant land 

 about Salem and Marblehead soon grew indistinct, and was finally lost to 

 view. 



In the meantime the ropes have been coiled, dories turned bottom up and 

 securely lashed, and the vessel pumped out ; while our ears have been 

 pleasantly greeted by the ding dong of the cook's dinner bell, calling us 

 away from " straightening up things on deck." The crew is divided into 

 two gangs for meals, the table in the forecastle not being large enough to 

 accommodate all. One of the second gang now came aft saying: "I'll keep 

 her along, skipper, while you get dinner," whereupon I gave up the wheel 

 which I had held since starting, and went with the first gang down to din- 

 ner. For dinner we had the usual first meal at sea, which, hastily prepared, 

 consists of boiled salt beef and potatoes, white biscuits, pilot-bread and 

 butter, strong tea and fried beefsteak. This bill of fare is very much 

 changed as soon as the "Doctor" (cook) has time to prepare a greater 

 variety, and tho-ugh beefsteak or other fresh meat is rarely seen after the 

 first few days out, the table is well provided with plenty of good bread, cakes, 

 pies, &c., and last, though not least, the finest fish are served up in a manner 

 rarely equalled elsewhere. 



After dinner the patent-log is put out, a note made of the bearing and 

 distance of the land, and then everybody is called aft to "thumb the hat," in 

 order that the watch may be set. All hands now stand around an inverted 

 hat, taking hold of it so that the thumbs are on top of the rim. The skipper 

 then turns away his head, and, reaching over, touches one of the thumbs, 

 and then counts around from left to right any number previously decided 

 upon. The first one that the count reaches has the first watch. The 

 counting then begins at the next thumb with " One," and so on until each 

 man knows his watch, and with the injunction from the skipper, " Remember 

 now whom you call," the performance ends, and the one having the first 

 watch takes the wheel. 



We now have an opportunity to notice critically the vessel, upon the mer- 

 its of which we depend not only for the successful issue of the voyage, in a 

 pecuniary sense, but for the preservation of life itself. She is a clipper 

 schooner of 80 tons, with fine lines and broad beam, but "snug-rigged," that 

 is, carrying but one jib, as befits the winter weather. Forward, on the 



