On Board the "Rocket"

by Robert C. Adams

There was an old sailor on board who had greatly attracted my interest, partly owing to the circumstances attending his coming on this voyage, and partly because of his good nature and willingness to work as well as his feeble energies would permit. He was now fifty-two years old, and a confirmed drunkard. The day after leaving Baltimore he came to the steward, as he was about going into the galley with a pan of dough, and asked him if he knew where the ship was bound to.

"Certainly," said the steward, "don't you?"

He shook his head, and the steward told him: "We're going to Amsterdam."

Old Harry's story was this: He was the son of a clergyman in Virginia, and when quite young had run away to sea. He fell into bad habits which prevented his rising in his profession, and for years he had been drifting about, sometimes in the navy, and again in merchant vessels. Though he had occasionally returned to his friends, his appetite for strong drink had always overcome his good resolutions, and he had long ago been given up as a hopeless case. He had a brother in Norfolk, well to do, who, after several unsuccessful efforts of late years to find traces of Harry, had discovered his last voyage. Upon the arrival of the ship at Baltimore he had sent him a sum of money to defray his expenses home, and offered to give him a shelter and support him for the rest of his days. Old Harry was glad enough to accept this offer, for he was now quite broken down in health, and in his sober hours at sea had many anxious thoughts as to what would become of him in the future. But he could not resist the inclination for another good drink before he started, and his next sensible moment found him removed from the den in Baltimore, where he had been carousing, to the forecastle, out of sight of land, and with only fifteen cents in his pocket. These he offered to the steward for a glass of whiskey, with most imploring tones, but failed to obtain it. He had a touch of delirium tremens, and after getting rid of the devils who, he fancied, were tormenting him, he was in a most thoughtful and penitent mood.

A twenty-two days' passage brought the ship into the English Channel. Passing through the Straits of Dover into the North Sea, the wind hauled to the northward and increased to a fresh gale. The topsails were double-reefed, and the ship slowly forged ahead, though making some leeway, causing the captain to feel anxious about the lee shore, which was in sight not far distant.

The Dutch pilots usually cruise about Dungeness, at the entrance of the Straits, but not happening to run across one, Capt. Streeter was in too much of a hurry to wait, and so kept on. Now he became very anxious to procure one, and being off Antwerp he ordered he me to set the "Jack" at the fore royal-mast-head as a signal for a pilot. I gave the signal halyards to one of the men, and told him to lay aloft and reeve them at the fore. The man slowly climbed up the rigging, but when he got to the royal-mast his courage gave out. The ship was lying over very much and jumping heavily in the sharp sea, so that it was a matter of difficulty to hold on, and much more so to shin up the long mast-head. I cheered the man on, who made two or three unsuccessful attempts to reach the truck, but after ascending a short distance invariably slid back to the eyes of the rigging. Another man was now sent up to help him, or do the work for him, and I travelled aloft also to drive them up. But both men were thoroughly frightened; so much so that I feared they might lose their hold altogether, and I did not like to force them at this risk, so at last I took the halyards myself and soon was at the mast-head. Just at this moment Capt. Streeter came out of the cabin and walked forward to see if his order had been executed. There he beheld his second mate at the fore truck, and two sailors in the cross-trees looking at him performing their work. This was rather opposed to his idea of things, so he armed himself with the long unused cat, which had been out of service since the negro-boys escaped from its tutelage, and when the men reached the deck he gave them each a good flogging; and when I appeared he said to me: "If I ever see you do sailors' work again for them, I'll treat you in the same way."

But the flag did not bring the pilot, though the wind moderated enough to quiet the captain's fears of the lee-shore. Laying off and on during the night, in the morning the spires and windmills of Holland appeared rising out of the sea before the land was visible. A pilot boat came along side and a rosy-cheeked little Dutchman clambered over the rail. In his short sailor's jacket he looked like an overgrown boy; but he proved himself a good pilot, by bringing the ship into the Zuyder Zee and then entering her in the canal at New Diep, the port of Amsterdam.

Vessels formerly sailed up the Zuyder Zee to Amsterdam, but were often detained two or three weeks for water enough to carry them over a certain bank. The enterprising merchants, to obviate this delay, dug a canal fifty miles long, from Amsterdam to New Diep, making it wide enough for two frigates to pass abreast, and the ships are drawn through this to the city in about eighteen hours; or, if preferred, they can discharge at New Diep into canal-boats, which convey the cargo to the city. Another deeper and shorter canal has been made since then.

Capt. Streeter chose the latter plan and speedily got to work at discharging the tobacco and staves. With two men I worked in the hold, breaking out and slinging the cargo, and the rest on deck, at the tackle, hoisted it out.

Though the ship lay alongside the quay, the captain refused permission to any of the sailors to go on shore in the evening, saying all they wanted was to get drunk, and the sailors not relishing this restriction, and thinking they had done enough hard work on board the "Dublin," took leave of absence on their own account, and for awhile every morning found two of the crew missing, until only three or four were left.