On Board the "Rocket"

by Robert C. Adams

When fifty days out we sighted the revolving light on Cape of Good Hope, and the next day having a light westerly wind we stood along the coast to the northward and enjoyed a fine view of Table Mountain.

This turning of the corner was a joyous event. Now we pointed the ship's head towards home and realized that we were actually bound there, which it was hard to do while our course had any southing in it. Fine weather regions lay before us, and an immense load was removed from the captain's mind by the safe "doubling of the Cape."

South-east winds set in next, and we went "rolling down to St. Helena" before fresh trades, with very fine weather.

The steady winds and settled weather of the South Atlantic are always taken advantage of by the homeward bound ships to tar-down the rigging, paint and "fix up" generally for port. It is customary to keep all hands then, even in ships where it is not the continual practice. That is, instead of having only half of the crew at work at a time and alternating every four hours, all hands are kept on deck in the afternoon from one o'clock until six. They all get dinner together at twelve and no work is done from noon until one. At one all "turn to," and either all hands get supper together at six, or one watch gets theirs at half-past five and the other at six. Under the watch and watch system a sailor is on deck ten hours out of the twenty-four on one day and fourteen hours on the next, making twenty-four hours of work and twenty-four of rest in forty-eight. In the all-hands system a man is on deck thirteen hours one day and fourteen and a half the next, making twenty-seven and a half hours of work and twenty and a half of rest in forty-eight. To the advocates of the eight-hour system, this may seem an undue proportion of working hours, but it is to be remembered, however, that half of these hours occur in the night time, when, if the wind is steady and weather fine, there is no work to be done, and if the helmsman and the lookout are wide awake and the crew answer promptly to a summons, it would not be noticed in most ships if the men stole a nap on deck between times. But in "hard ships" the men are always kept moving. The officers of course at all times in their watch on deck must be wide awake and, it is presumed, on their feet, so that keeping all hands is more of a privation to them than it is to the sailors.

The mate asked me one night after we got past the Cape, if he should begin now to keep all hands until the work was done.

"Do you think you could get the work done with watch and watch?"

"I suppose we could," said the mate, "but we shall have to keep driving at it right up to Boston Light."

"Did you ever go through the trades with watch and watch?" I asked.