When I reached New York, in consequence of my inexperience I could get no berth on shipboard, as they only wanted to employ able seamen, so I was advised to go to New Bedford, where green hands were more wanted, and where, I was told, I could go free of expense.
Accordingly, next morning, in care of an agent, I started on board a vessel bound for that port. When I arrived there, I was told I could only go before the mast as a raw hand, as a great responsibility rested upon the cook, or steward, of a whaling vessel, bound upon a long voyage, one of which places I preferred and solicited.
I soon saw there was no chance for me with that master, so I went to the office of Mr. Gideon Allen, who was fitting out a ship for sea, and wanted both cook and steward. I approached him with much boldness, and asked if he would like to employ a good steward, to which he replied in the affirmative, asking me at the same time if I was one.
I told him I thought I was. So, without much parleying we agreed upon the price, when he took me down to the vessel, gave to my charge the keys of the cabin, and I went to work as well as I knew how.
The following day the Captain, Mr. Aaron C. Luce, come on board with Mr. Allen, who introduced me to him as the captain of the ship, with whom I was going to sea. The captain looked at me very suspiciously, as much as to say, you know nothing of the duties of the office you now fill.
At the house where I boarded was a cook, who, in consequence of deformed feet, could not obtain a berth, as the captains and ship owners thought he would thereby be disenabled for going aloft when necessity required it. This man told me that if I would get him a place as cook, he could and would give me all needful instruction in reference to my office.
I was pleased with an offer which promised so well for me, and accordingly recommended him to Mr. Allen for cook, who, supposing I knew the man, and that all was right, hired him.
The Milwood, on which we were to sail, was a splendid vessel, called a three boat ship. She was arranged to carry 3500 bbls. of oil, with a crew numbering twenty-five hands, with four principal officers, captain and three mates, and three boatswains, who are termed subordinate officers. All things being in readiness, the hands were summoned on board, when, at the pilot’s command, she was loosed from her moorings at the dock, floated out of the harbor, and with well filled sails, stood out to sea.
The thoughts of the voyage and of the responsibilities which I had taken upon myself, were anything but pleasant. I knew that I was wholly ignorant of a steward’s duties, and consequently expected to incur the captain’s just displeasure for my assurance and imposition, since at sea every man is expected to know his own duty, and fill his own station, without begging aid from others. But again I reflected that God was all sufficient, at sea as well as upon the land, so I put my trust in him, fully confident that he would bring me out more than victorious.
As I bid my family farewell, and left the American shore, I thought over the following lines: