On Board the "Rocket"

by Robert C. Adams

She reported a heavy gale two days before, when we had been in calm weather.

Discussions of this event, the news obtained, and a salt-fish dinner enlivened a few days.

The last Saturday afternoon of the passage, the decks were washed down early and at four o'clock all hands were called aft. The captain took his stand at the capstan and the crew sitting on boards laid upon deck-buckets, listened attentively to a temperance lecture, and some warnings and instructions about the dangers of life on shore soon to be encountered. Several signed the pledge afterwards, "Old Brown" among them.

The first sign of our approach to land was the meeting with some fifty schooners mackerel fishing, south of Nantucket Shoals. As we came among them one put his helm up, and running down on us till his bowsprit seemed nearly to touch us, he sheered alongside and shouted, "Cap'n, do you want some fish?"

"Aye! aye!" I replied.

Then the air was filled with mackerel aimed at my head by a half-dozen men, and some of them came near the mark. Three schooners in succession paid us this compliment, and all hands had a good supper and breakfast of mackerel in consequence.

We generally expect a gale when coming on the coast and always promote our fears by recalling the old rhyme:

"If the Bermudas let you pass,
Oh then beware of Hatteras;
If safely you get by Cape May
You'll catch it sure in Boston Bay."

This time our fears were not realized.

We bent the chains and put the anchors in the shoes, and on a Friday evening were almost within range of the Highland Light when a dense fog set in and deferred our hope of seeing it. The wind was moderate from the southward and we rounded to every two hours for soundings, and then kept on the course. A man was stationed on the top-gallant forecastle with a fog horn, which he sounded vigorously, and now and then received similar responses from neighboring vessels. The blast of one horn continued to draw nearer until it seemed close by us, then we heard a dog barking and a hoarse voice sounded through the fog, "How are you steering?"