Sea watches were now set—four hours for sleep and four for work throughout the twenty-four. My watch was sent below. No one slept during this first watch below, but we made up for lost time during our second turn. Soon we became accustomed to the routine and found it as restful as the usual landsman's method of eight hours' sleep and sixteen of wakefulness.
It is difficult for a landlubber to understand how sailors on shipboard can be kept constantly busy. The brig was a veritable hive of industry. The watch on deck when morning broke pumped ship and swept and flushed down the decks. During the day watches, in addition to working the ship, we were continuously breaking out supplies, keeping the water barrel on deck filled from casks in the hold, laboring1 with the cargo2, scrubbing paint work, polishing brass3 work, slushing masts and spars, repairing rigging, and attending to a hundred and one details that must be looked after every day. The captain of a ship is one of the most scrupulous4 housekeepers5 in the world, and only by keeping his crew busy from morning till night is he able to keep his ship spick and span and in proper repair. Whale ships are supposed to be dirty. On the contrary, they are kept as clean as water and brooms and hard work can keep them.
The food served aboard the brig was nothing to brag6 about. Breakfast consisted of corned-beef hash, hardtack, and coffee without milk or sugar. We sweetened our coffee with molasses, a keg of which was kept in the forecastle. For dinner, we had soup, corned-beef stew7, called "skouse," a loaf of soft bread, and coffee. For supper, we had slices of corned-beef which the sailors called "salt horse," hardtack, and tea. The principal variation in this diet was in the soups.
The days were a round of barley8 soup, bean soup, pea soup, and back to barley soup again, an alternation that led the men to speak of the days of the week not as Monday, Tuesday, and so on, but as "barley soup day," "bean soup day," and "pea soup day." Once or twice a week we had gingerbread for supper. On the other hand the cabin fared sumptuously9 on canned vegetables, meat, salmon10, soft bread, tea, and coffee with sugar and condensed milk, fresh fish and meat whenever procurable11, and a dessert every day at dinner, including plum duff, a famous sea delicacy12 which never in all the voyage found its way forward.
From the first day, the green hands were set learning the ropes, to stand lookout13, to take their trick at the wheel, to reef and furl and work among the sails. These things are the A B C of seamanship, but they are not to be learned in a day or a week. A ship is a complicated mechanism14, and it takes a long time for a novice15 to acquire even the rudiments16 of sea education. Going aloft was a terrifying ordeal17 at first to several of the green hands, though it never bothered me. When the cowboy was first ordered to furl the fore-royal, he hung back and said, "I can't" and "I'll fall," and whimpered and begged to be let off. But he was forced to try. He climbed the ratlines slowly and painfully to the royal yard, and he finally furled the sail, though it took him a long time to do it. He felt so elated that after that he wanted to furl the royal every time it had to be done;—didn't want to give anyone else a chance.
Furling the royal was a one-man job. The foot-rope was only a few feet below the yard, and if a man stood straight on it, the yard would strike him a little above the knees. If the ship were pitching, a fellow had to look sharp or he would be thrown off;—if that had happened it was a nice, straight fall of eighty feet to the deck. My own first experience on the royal yard gave me an exciting fifteen minutes. The ship seemed to be fighting me and devoting an unpleasant amount of time and effort to it; bucking18 and tossing as if with a sentient19 determination to shake me off into the atmosphere. I escaped becoming a grease spot on the deck of the brig only by hugging the yard as if it were a sweetheart and hanging on for dear life. I became in time quite an expert at furling the sail.
Standing21 lookout was the one thing aboard a green hand could do as well as an old sailor. The lookout was posted on the forecastle-head in fair weather and on the try-works in a storm. He stood two hours at a stretch. He had to scan the sea ahead closely and if a sail or anything unusual appeared, he reported to the officer of the watch.
Learning to steer22 by the compass was comparatively easy. With the ship heading on a course, it was not difficult by manipulating the wheel to keep the needle of the compass on a given point. But to steer by the wind was hard to learn and is sometimes a nice matter even for skillful seamen23. When a ship is close-hauled and sailing, as sailors say, right in the wind's eye, the wind is blowing into the braced24 sails at the weather edge of the canvas;—if the vessel25 were brought any higher up, the wind would pour around on the back of the sails. The helmsman's aim is to keep the luff of the royal sail or of the sails that happen to be set, wrinkling and loose—luffing, sailors call it. That shows that the wind is slanting26 into the sails at just the right angle and perhaps a little bit is spilling over. I gradually learned to do this in the daytime. But at night when it was almost impossible for me to see the luff of the sails clearly, it was extremely difficult and I got into trouble more than once by my clumsiness. The trick at the wheel was of two hours' duration.
The second day out from San Francisco was Christmas. I had often read that Christmas was a season of good cheer and happiness among sailors at sea, that it was commemorated27 with religious service, and that the skipper sent forward grog and plum duff to gladden the hearts of the sailormen. But Santa Claus forgot the sailors on the brig. Bean soup only distinguished28 Christmas from the day that had gone before and the day that came after. No liquor or tempting29 dishes came to the forecastle. It was the usual day of hard work from dawn to dark.
After two weeks of variable weather during which we were often becalmed, we put into Turtle bay, midway down the coast of Lower California, and dropped anchor.
Turtle bay is a beautiful little land-locked harbor on an uninhabited coast. There was no village or any human habitation on its shores. A desolate30, treeless country, seamed by gullies and scantily31 covered with sun-dried grass, rolled away to a chain of high mountains which forms the backbone32 of the peninsula of Lower California. These mountains were perhaps thirty miles from the coast; they were gray and apparently33 barren of trees or any sort of herbage, and looked to be ridges34 of naked granite35. The desert character of the landscape was a surprise, as we were almost within the tropics.
We spent three weeks of hard work in Turtle bay. Sea watches were abolished and all hands were called on deck at dawn and kept busy until sundown. The experienced sailors were employed as sail makers36; squatting37 all day on the quarter-deck, sewing on canvas with a palm and needle. Old sails were sent down from the spars and patched and repaired. If they were too far gone, new sails were bent38 in their stead. The green hands had the hard work. They broke out the hold and restowed every piece of cargo, arranging it so that the vessel rode on a perfectly39 even keel. Yards and masts were slushed, the rigging was tarred, and the ship was painted inside and out.
The waters of the harbor were alive with Spanish mackerel, albacore, rock bass40, bonitos, and other kinds of fish. The mackerel appeared in great schools that rippled41 the water as if a strong breeze were blowing. These fish attracted great numbers of gray pelicans42, which had the most wonderful mode of flight I have ever seen in any bird. For hours at a time, with perfectly motionless pinions43, they skimmed the surface of the bay like living aeroplanes; one wondered wherein lay their motor power and how they managed to keep going. When they spied a school of mackerel, they rose straight into the air with a great flapping of wings, then turned their heads downward, folded their wings close to their bodies, and dropped like a stone. Their great beaks44 cut the water, they went under with a terrific splash, and immediately emerged with a fish in the net-like membrane45 beneath their lower mandible.
Every Sunday, a boat's crew went fishing. We fished with hand lines weighted with lead and having three or four hooks, baited at first with bacon and later with pieces of fresh fish. I never had such fine fishing. The fish bit as fast as we could throw in our lines, and we were kept busy hauling them out of the water. We would fill a whale boat almost to the gunwales in a few hours. With the return of the first fishing expedition, the sailors had dreams of a feast, but they were disappointed. The fish went to the captain's table or were salted away in barrels for the cabin's future use. The sailors, however, enjoyed the fun. Many of them kept lines constantly over the brig's sides, catching46 skates, soles, and little sharks.
By the time we reached Turtle bay, it was no longer a secret that we would get only a dollar for our year's voyage. As a result, a feverish47 spirit of discontent began to manifest itself among those forward and plans to run away became rife48.
We were anchored about a half mile from shore, and after looking over the situation, I made up my mind to try to escape. Except for an officer and a boatsteerer who stood watch, all hands were asleep below at night. Being a good swimmer, I planned to slip over the bow in the darkness and swim ashore49. Once on land, I figured it would be an easy matter to cross the Sierras and reach a Mexican settlement on the Gulf50 of California.
Possibly the officers got wind of the runaway51 plots brewing52 in the forecastle, for Captain Winchester came forward one evening, something he never had done before, and fell into gossipy talk with the men.
"Have you noticed that pile of stones with a cross sticking in it on the harbor head?" he asked in a casual sort of way.
Yes, we had all noticed it from the moment we dropped anchor, and had wondered what it was.
"That," said the captain impressively, "is a grave. Whaling vessels53 have been coming to Turtle bay for years to paint ship and overhaul54. Three sailors on a whaler several years ago thought this was a likely place in which to escape. They managed to swim ashore at night and struck into the hills. They expected to find farms and villages back inland. They didn't know that the whole peninsula of Lower California is a waterless desert from one end to the other. They had some food with them and they kept going for days. No one knows how far inland they traveled, but they found neither inhabitants nor water and their food was soon gone.
"When they couldn't stand it any longer and were half dying from thirst and hunger, they turned back for the coast. By the time they returned to Turtle bay their ship had sailed away and there they were on a desert shore without food or water and no way to get either. I suppose they camped on the headland in the hope of hailing a passing ship. But the vessels that pass up and down this coast usually keep out of sight of land. Maybe the poor devils sighted a distant topsail—no one knows—but if they did the ship sank beyond the horizon without paying any attention to their frantic55 signals. So they died miserably56 there on the headland.
"Next year, a whale ship found their bodies and erected57 a cairn of stones marked by the cross you see over the spot where the three sailors were buried together. This is a bad country to run away in," the captain added. "No food, no water, no inhabitants. It's sure death for a runaway."
Having spun58 this tragic59 yarn60, Captain Winchester went aft again, feeling, no doubt, that he had sowed seed on fertile soil. The fact is his story had an instant effect. Most of the men abandoned their plans to escape, at least for the time being, hoping a more favorable opportunity would present itself when we reached the Hawaiian islands. But I had my doubts. I thought it possible the captain merely had "put over" a good bluff61.
Next day I asked Little Johnny, the boatsteerer, if it were true as the captain had said, that Lower California was an uninhabited desert. He assured me it was and to prove it, he brought out a ship's chart from the cabin and spread it before me. I found that only two towns throughout the length and breadth of the peninsula were set down on the map. One of these was Tia Juana on the west coast just south of the United States boundary line and the other was La Paz on the east coast near Cape20 St. Lucas, the southern tip of the peninsula. Turtle bay was two or three hundred miles from either town.
That settled it with me. I didn't propose to take chances on dying in the desert. I preferred a whaler's forecastle to that.
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1
laboring
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| n.劳动，操劳v.努力争取(for)( labor的现在分词 )；苦干；详细分析；（指引擎）缓慢而困难地运转 | |
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cargo
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| n.(一只船或一架飞机运载的)货物 | |
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brass
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| n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器 | |
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4
scrupulous
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| adj.审慎的，小心翼翼的，完全的，纯粹的 | |
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5
housekeepers
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| n.（女）管家( housekeeper的名词复数 ) | |
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6
brag
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| v./n.吹牛，自夸；adj.第一流的 | |
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stew
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| n.炖汤，焖，烦恼；v.炖汤，焖，忧虑 | |
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8
barley
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| n.大麦，大麦粒 | |
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sumptuously
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| 奢侈地，豪华地 | |
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salmon
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| n.鲑，大马哈鱼，橙红色的 | |
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procurable
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| adj.可得到的，得手的 | |
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12
delicacy
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| n.精致，细微，微妙，精良；美味，佳肴 | |
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13
lookout
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| n.注意，前途，瞭望台 | |
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14
mechanism
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| n.机械装置；机构，结构 | |
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15
novice
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| adj.新手的，生手的 | |
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rudiments
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| n.基础知识，入门 | |
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ordeal
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| n.苦难经历，（尤指对品格、耐力的）严峻考验 | |
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18
bucking
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| v.（马等）猛然弓背跃起( buck的现在分词 )；抵制；猛然震荡；马等尥起后蹄跳跃 | |
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sentient
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| adj.有知觉的，知悉的；adv.有感觉能力地 | |
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cape
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| n.海角，岬；披肩，短披风 | |
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21
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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22
steer
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| vt.驾驶，为…操舵；引导；vi.驾驶 | |
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23
seamen
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| n.海员 | |
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24
braced
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| adj.拉牢的v.支住( brace的过去式和过去分词 )；撑牢；使自己站稳；振作起来 | |
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25
vessel
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| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
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slanting
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| 倾斜的，歪斜的 | |
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27
commemorated
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| v.纪念，庆祝( commemorate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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28
distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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29
tempting
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| a.诱人的, 吸引人的 | |
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30
desolate
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| adj.荒凉的，荒芜的；孤独的，凄凉的；v.使荒芜，使孤寂 | |
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31
scantily
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| adv.缺乏地；不充足地；吝啬地；狭窄地 | |
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32
backbone
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| n.脊骨，脊柱，骨干；刚毅，骨气 | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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ridges
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| n.脊( ridge的名词复数 )；山脊；脊状突起；大气层的)高压脊 | |
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granite
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| adj.花岗岩，花岗石 | |
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36
makers
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| n.制造者，制造商（maker的复数形式） | |
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37
squatting
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| v.像动物一样蹲下( squat的现在分词 )；非法擅自占用（土地或房屋）；为获得其所有权；而占用某片公共用地。 | |
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38
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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39
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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40
bass
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| n.男低音(歌手)；低音乐器；低音大提琴 | |
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41
rippled
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| 使泛起涟漪（ripple的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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42
pelicans
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| n.鹈鹕( pelican的名词复数 ) | |
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43
pinions
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| v.抓住[捆住]（双臂）( pinion的第三人称单数 ) | |
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44
beaks
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| n.鸟嘴( beak的名词复数 )；鹰钩嘴；尖鼻子；掌权者 | |
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45
membrane
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| n.薄膜，膜皮，羊皮纸 | |
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46
catching
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| adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住 | |
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47
feverish
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| adj.发烧的，狂热的，兴奋的 | |
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48
rife
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| adj.(指坏事情)充斥的，流行的，普遍的 | |
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49
ashore
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| adv.在(向)岸上，上岸 | |
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50
gulf
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| n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂 | |
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51
runaway
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| n.逃走的人，逃亡，亡命者；adj.逃亡的，逃走的 | |
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52
brewing
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| n. 酿造, 一次酿造的量 动词brew的现在分词形式 | |
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53
vessels
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| n.血管( vessel的名词复数 )；船；容器；（具有特殊品质或接受特殊品质的）人 | |
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54
overhaul
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| v./n.大修，仔细检查 | |
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55
frantic
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| adj.狂乱的，错乱的，激昂的 | |
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56
miserably
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| adv.痛苦地；悲惨地；糟糕地；极度地 | |
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57
ERECTED
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| adj. 直立的，竖立的，笔直的 vt. 使 ... 直立，建立 | |
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58
spun
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| v.纺，杜撰，急转身 | |
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59
tragic
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| adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的 | |
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60
yarn
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| n.纱，纱线，纺线；奇闻漫谈，旅行轶事 | |
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61
bluff
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| v.虚张声势，用假象骗人；n.虚张声势，欺骗 | |
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