We saw the vessel under the last-mentioned individual’s command on the first day of December. She was then bound home, and had but ten barrels of meat aboard for the consumption of the crew during the passage, which, as she had been out about four years, will consume at least ninety days. This quantity of meat would last us with the same number in the ship’s company as she has, but thirty days. For such conduct this man could not plead non-success, as he had on board one of the best cargoes on the ocean—his quantity of oil being no less than two thousand barrels, of which sixteen hundred contained sperm oil.
On learning that the Coimbra was bound direct for home, several of us put letters aboard of her, and as she kept off and receded from our sight we naturally wished that we were pursuing a course in the same direction, and were agreeably astonished the next morning (December 5th) to find our captain keep off to the southward, and learned that we were bound round the Cape. In the afternoon we saw the Coimbra, overhauled and passed her; our studding-sails giving us a great advantage over her when the wind is free. The following day, in order to compete with us, she made and bent studding-sails; but this was as far as she could go, and we were still to windward of her, as we had made and bent mizzen, maintopmast, and maintopgallant staysails, which gave us a slight advantage.
On account of the length of time, and the chafing of whales alongside and under the ship, the copper was in a desperate condition. Looking at her bottom, when the sea was calm and clear, nothing could be seen but an irregular bunch of vegetable matter; looking, from her waterways to the kelson, as much like a collection of old rags, as anything else that I could compare it to, whilst in many places whole sheets of copper were gone, and in others it was rolled up in scrolls. I hooked up a piece, and, on examination, found it of an almost transparent thinness. All these inequalities in the surface of the bottom naturally tended to retard the speed; and, consequently, when whalers start for home, they strive to make amends for all deficiencies by a greater spread of canvass, and venture to carry it longer than any other class of vessels afloat, relying on the number and skill of their men to prevent disaster in time of emergency.
We kept on with a light fair wind to the southward and eastward for some days, and, from the agreeableness of the weather, augured a pleasant passage around; but when opposite Cape l’Agulhas the wind hauled ahead, and we had it first light and clear, then strong and cloudy, with showers of rain and thick fog. For the benefit of those who imagine that sailors have but little to do when afloat, I will copy from my log-book the proceedings of several days (whilst in this baffling weather), verbatim et literatum.
December 16th.—This day opens with a strong breeze from the eastward, cloudy. At midnight running before it, with maintopgallant sail, fore, and foretopmast studding sails set. At 1 o’clock A. M. the breeze increasing to a gale, we took in the studding-sails and topgallantsail; at three, double-reefed the topsails; at 6 A. M. the wind hauling forward, loosed and set the mainsail; at 8, were obliged to furl it; at 9, shook a reef out of each topsail, and set jib, spanker, and mainsail; at 11, the wind hauled to the S. S. W., clewed down the topsails and close-reefed them—thus remained for the balance of the day.
December 17th.—At 1 A. M. shook a reef out of each topsail; at 4¹⁄₂, struck by a squall that hove her down rail to, hauled up the courses, kept the ship off to haul down the jib, which was done, and furled the sail; then furled the spanker, luffed to, close-reefed the topsails and furled the mainsail amid torrents of rain; at 3 P. M. furled the foretopsail; at 6 P. M., after having shipped a sea that filled it full, took in the bowboat; at 6¹⁄₂, furled the foresail; at 7, clewed down the maintopsail, shook out the reefs and reefed it over; at 7¹⁄₂, loosed the foretopsail, shook out the reefs, reefed it over, sheeted it home and set it.
December 18th.—At 1¹⁄₂ A. M., furled foretopsail; at 4, set close-reefed foretopsail and foresail; at 7, made all sail; at 3 P. M., furled the light sails, and double-reefed the foretopsail; at 7 P. M., shook the reefs out, and set the flying-jib and maintopgallantsail; at 10, furled the light sails and double-reefed the fore topsail, and at midnight double-reefed the maintopsail.
Here was work enough for three days, and hard work, as any one may discover, who doubts the fact, by, like me, participating in it; but handling, reefing, and steering, are by no means all the employments of the seamen when afloat. Everything being kept taut, the strain on the rigging, in heavy weather, is tremendous, so that some little thing or other always needs repair; and in fine weather the sailor is sent with his marlinespike, slush, and tar-bucket, into the rigging, where he not unusually stays a whole watch, busily employed in putting a seizing here, or seizing on a ratline there, repairing the service, or other chafing gear. These, with other duties of a like description, keep a merchantman’s crew continually on the move; but where there are so many, as with us, the labors are performed without making the task irksome to any.
Wishing, in doubling the Cape, to near the land, so as to take advantage of the westerly current (which here is said to run with a speed of four knots hourly), we done all we could to hang on; but the wind forbade us arriving at this desired position; and as we drifted considerably to the southward, we were two degrees from Table Mountain on the 21st, when, with a fair wind and plenty of it, a clear sky and smooth sea, without let or hindrance, we passed into the blue waters of the Atlantic Ocean; just three years, two months, and eleven days from the time we passed from it into the Indian Ocean, with a prospect of three years whaling before us; all buoyant with hope, and not a doubt entering the thoughts of any that, by the time we were thus far on our return passage, we should be full of oil. But it is needless to say that such is far from being the case.
It cannot be supposed that we left the Indian Ocean, whose broad bosom was our home for so many months, with any regret. Indeed, there was little to endear it to the remembrance of any one who ever experienced its changeable and heavy weather, and who has been obliged to visit its miserable ports. We have had a pretty thorough acquaintance with it, having navigated its entire length, and cruised, day after day, in its waters, from latitude 8° to 42° south.