The next Monday the sailors supposed that we should begin of course to keep all hands in the afternoon, and when eight bells was struck at noon, they all opened their ears and looked out of the corners of their eyes at the mate, waiting for the expected and dreaded order, "All hands get dinner." But nothing was said, and the men kept on with their work, with their brains full of surmises as to what it meant. At one bell, when the watch came out, the mate mustered all hands at the main-hatch, and said to them: "Men, the captain says he's willing to give you watch and watch all the time, if you can get the work done. But this bark has got to be put in just as fine order as any ship that ever went into Boston harbor. Now we'll try you and see what you can do. But if the work lags, or there's any hanging back, I'll have you out."
So we went to work with the watch, fitting the rigging, and tarring down. The men did as well as we could wish, things went on quietly, and the work disappeared day by day faster than we had expected.
The crew presented a rather uncouth appearance on deck during this period, for one suit of clothes was devoted to serve through the tarring and then go overboard. The officers were not much more attractive in appearance, as the second mate's portrait will testify.
It had a good moral effect to secure one day's cleanliness out of seven, the result of our system of services in the cabin on Sunday.
The sailors in the Rocket were favored with good living, watch and watch, and kind treatment. They were never cursed, nor called by hard names. Instruction was given to those who desired it, and religious influences pervaded the vessel. The voyage was a pleasant one. Fine weather and favoring breezes usually prevailed, and the fairest regions of earth were visited. If sailors could ever be happy and contented, these circumstances, which probably were in marked contrast to the experiences of many, should have produced this result upon that crew.
When the voyage commenced they had no praise too good to bestow. They allowed they were in a good ship; the captain was the best man they ever sailed with; the officers were perfect gentlemen; the "grub" was first-rate. But, on the homeward passage, although everything was the same as when outward bound, the sailors sat down on their chests in the forecastle with their feast of "soft-tack" and apple-sauce in their pans, and, as the saying is, they growled like bears with sore heads. Their behavior on deck and manner of working was unexceptionable, but if their life and talk in the forecastle were chronicled it would convey the impression that they considered themselves an ill-used, poorly-fed and oppressed set of men.
The mate one evening practised an eaves-dropping in which he proved the truth of the old proverb, "listeners never hear any good of themselves." Old Nielson, a Swede, the best sailor-man in the ship, with his mouth stuffed nearly full of molasses gingerbread, was leading the growl. Said he, "I've been to sea thirty-two years and I never sailed in a worse ship than this is. Nobody aft knows what we get to eat, and that nigger gives us just as little as he likes. Last ship I was in the cap'n or mate went into the galley every day and saw things were cooked right and plenty of 'em, but here we don't get any more notice taken of us than though we were a parcel of dogs. If the old man had some crews with him I bet he wouldn't impose on them. But sailors don't seem to have any spunk now-a-days, same as they used to. There's a whole barrel of vinegar down below, and yet we can't have but two bottles full a week. What does he want to carry it home for? He's keeping it back just to spite us. Do you call that being a Christian? I call him a mean old skin-flint; if he's going to heaven, I don't want to go there."
Now what did all this mean? Why, just this. They had found some of the gingerbread not done quite through. That was all. On board of most ships they would have been hard at work with "all hands on deck," all the afternoon, and had hard bread and beef only for supper. No doubt they would have enlivened the meal by growling about that in just the same way. In spite of all his mutterings in the forecastle, this man Nielson would come out on deck and be a model man in his behavior. His cheerful, "Aye, aye, sir!" would ring out to every order, and his respectful manners joined to his good seamanship had made him a favorite with captain and officers.
The explanation of this unreasonable conduct is that expressed in the well-known lines of Dr. Watts:
"Let bears and lions growl and fight,
For 'tis their nature to."