The next thing that occurred in the matter of discipline was, that one night I heard "Old Brown" reply, "Aye! aye!" to an order from the second mate, omitting the word "Sir." This is considered a great breach of ship etiquette; trivial as it seems, I was annoyed that the second mate took no notice of it. The next day I spoke to both parties separately about it, and the sailor professed to be utterly unconscious of his omission. He received a brief lecture and gave all desirable promises of respectful behavior, and "Sirs" were very clear and distinct for a while. The sailors seeing that they were kept up to the mark in these little matters, naturally concluded that they would not be allowed to do as they liked in greater concerns, and the routine of watch and watch went on harmoniously and efficiently.
When twenty days out we found ourselves within seven degrees of the line, but here the trades left us, and for nearly a fortnight the "doldrums" raged. The bark drifted about with light airs from the southward, dead ahead, or else lay like a log on the glassy sea, rolling lazily with the swell, her sails slatting and spars creaking at every roll.
Calm continues! Utter disgust!! Captain's growl:—"A sea life should be avoided and execrated by all sensible men. It is an utter stagnation of intellect and heart, and only develops hatred towards our fellow men and murmuring at God's Providence. I have tried it from beginning to end, and I solemnly and deliberately pronounce it—a dog's life."
An officer of a ship must have good nerves to be able to endure with patience that dreadful slatting and creaking, even had he no interest in the progress of the vessel; but to one earnestly desirous of making a quick passage, as is usually the case with the captain, the doldrums are the severest test of disposition that can be applied. As he walks the quarter-deck, whistling through his teeth, searching in all corners of the horizon for signs of a breeze, he discovers in the distance a rippling of the water. It gradually comes nearer the vessel and greets her with a gentle air. The captain orders all sail to be set, and the canvas swells out to the wind; the rudder stops its thumping, the water begins to gurgle in the wake, and the captain, watching the rate of speed as he leans over the lee-quarter, exclaims, "That's the breeze! go it, old boat! good-by to the doldrums!" But the wind lessens; there comes an ominous slat of the spanker, and a jingling of the sheet blocks that strikes dismay to the "old man's" heart. He starts up to windward, looks for the breeze and finds it to be but a catspaw. After the sails have flapped about for a few minutes, if belonging to a certain class of men, the captain in savage tones orders the courses hauled up, the spanker lowered and jibs and staysails hauled down. Then he throws his hat on deck and jumps on top of it, cursing everything "from an inch high and a year old upwards." He now casts his eye aloft and snarls out at the mate, "Why don't you keep those gaskets made up; nobody seems to care anything for the ship, she would go to destruction if it wasn't for me." The mate gives an order to a sailor, and as in the heat and dullness of the time he is not disposed to move very briskly, the angered mate vents his spleen by a curse or opprobrious epithet. Perhaps a fight follows, or merely a war of words; the rest of the crew become disaffected; at dinnertime they go to the galley and growl at the cook for not giving them more or better grub; and so from stem to stern of the ship, bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, evil speaking, with all malice abound.
In the centre of this doldrum region clouds and heavy rains prevail. Torrents sometimes fall so continuously that the surface water becomes sensibly freshened. The great "cloud belt" overhangs this region of gloom. The air is sultry and oppressive, making the body weary and the spirit depressed. I believe no region on the surface of the globe sends to the Ear above such a volume of murmurings, blasphemies and strife.
Concerning this place Lieut. Maury quotes from the journal of Commodore Sinclair: "This is certainly one of the most unpleasant regions in our globe. A dense, close atmosphere, except for a few hours after a thunder-storm, during which time torrents of rain fall, when the air becomes a little refreshed; but a hot, glowing sun heats it again, and but for your awning and the little air put in circulation by the continual flapping of the ship's sails it would be almost insufferable. No person who has not crossed this region can form an adequate idea of its unpleasant effects. You feel a degree of lassitude unconquerable, which not even the sea-bathing which everywhere else proved so salutary and renovating can dispel. Except when in actual danger of shipwreck I never spent twelve more disagreeable days.
"I crossed the line and soon found I had surmounted all the difficulties consequent to that event; that the breeze continued to freshen and draw round to the south south-east, bringing with it a clear sky and most heavenly temperature, renovating and refreshing beyond description. Nothing was now to be seen but cheerful countenances, exchanged as by enchantment from that sleepy sluggishness which had borne us all down for the last two weeks." Maury himself says of it: "Besides being a region of calms and baffling winds it is a region noted for its rains and clouds which make it one of the most oppressive and disagreeable places at sea. The emigrant ships from Europe to Australia have to cross it. They are often baffled in it for two or three weeks; then the children and the passengers who are of delicate health suffer most. It is a frightful graveyard on the wayside to that golden land."
The memory of days, nights and weeks repeated at intervals through many years, when disappointment, depression, vexation and sadness have been my companions, impel me to heap up testimony against this dreadful place, the dark valley of the waters. Far more cheerful to the sailor are the roaring gales of Cape Horn than the sluggish, damp, provoking airs of the Doldrums.