On Board the "Rocket"

by Robert C. Adams

"Six days thou shalt labor and do all thou art able; and on the seventh, holystone the decks and pound the cable."

I found, too, that it was rather harder to get along with the sailors. Having entire control of my watch I took much more interest in their performance of work, and any laziness or stupidity excited my pugnacity in the like greater proportion.

The crew, with two or three exceptions, were a poor set of men; not particularly ugly in disposition, but ignorant, thick-headed and lazy, and very trying to an officer's temper.

The captain behaved wonderfully well, and seemed so sincerely endeavoring to restrain his usual sea indulgences, that I had no regret at my decision in making the voyage.

The mate got along rather quietly, and proved himself to be a very efficient officer; and there was something in his calm, decided bearing which gave the captain great confidence in him, and also kept him somewhat from his customary interference with mate's duties. He bestowed pretty liberal attention on the second mate's affairs, however, and used to make me understand sometimes what Mr. Morrison had endured the previous voyage.

The mate was not harsh with the sailors, and carried on his work with very little noise, giving ordinary orders in a mild tone. But still he was strict, and the men had to move at a lively pace and be wide awake; and sometimes when they failed to do this, he did not resist the temptation of sending a curse and a belaying-pin after them, or perhaps giving them a touch of a rope's end. There was nothing, however, like Mr. Howard's abuse of men, and if a sailor did come in for a rap, he was pretty sure to be in the wrong. His relations to me were very pleasant. When relieving each other at night, if no work was going on, we had a short chat, or the mate told some little yarn about the Liverpool packet trade, which he had sailed in a good deal.

There was no third mate this voyage, so we had to depend on each other for sociability.

Though it was the month of August the weather was blustering and changeable. The S.W. wind which had favored us so well gave place to northerly and easterly winds, with unsettled and squally weather. At times nearly all sail would be set to a steady breeze, when suddenly the black, threatening clouds would spring up from the horizon, and with only a few minutes' warning, spread over the sky, bursting upon the ship in a furious gust, while all hands would be at work clewing up and hauling down the slatting, booming and rustling sails; and officers and sailors increased the noise by what would seem to a landsman a perfect Babel of harsh orders and shrill cries.

Those are the times that try officers' souls, and the times that test the sailors' merit. In fine weather a little laziness or ignorance may perhaps be borne patiently, but in a squall there is no forgiveness for a man who "hangs back," or "doesn't know what he's about."

In the confusion attending these squalls some of the sailors seemed to forget what little they knew, and were frequently letting go the wrong ropes or running everywhere except to the place where they were wanted. The captain's good resolutions succumbed to this pressure so far as to allow his tongue to regain its old fluency at cursing; the mate was pretty active both in words and deeds; and as for the second mate, he used to bite his lips pretty hard to keep his tongue quiet.