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California. Landlubber's Log ol a voyage ouna me norn, r>emg a journal j 
 Morton MacMichael, III, during a voyage from Philadelphia to San Francisco 
 DC Horn, in the American ship "Pactolus." Illustrated, 12mo., original cloth, 
 ce, 1879. ($10.00). 
 
 Only a few copies privately printed. _^ 
 
 ^---' ft 
 
 
 'n l! ) C-K 
 TNW 
 

Bancroft 
 
A LANDLUBBER'S LOG 
 
 OF HIS 
 
 VOYAGE AROUND CAPE HORN. 
 
 BEING 
 
 A JOURNAL KEPT DURING A FOUR MONTHS' VOYAGE 
 ON AN AMERICAN MERCHANTMAN, 
 
 BOUND FROM 
 
 PHILADELPHIA TO SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 BY 
 
 MORTON MAcMICHAEL 30. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO. 
 
 1883. 
 
Copyright, 1882, by MORTON MACMlCHAEL 
 
,croh Library 
 
 INTRODUCTORY 
 
 IN launching this little volume upon the current 
 of Christmas-tide literature, the author wishes to 
 explain that it was not written originally with an 
 eye to publication, but simply as a long letter for 
 home consumption only. In that form a small 
 edition was printed for private circulation, but 
 without the proof-sheets having been overhauled 
 and sundry errors corrected. The present edi- 
 tion, if it has no other virtue, is at least ship- 
 shape and correct. The only hope the author has 
 of the book floating after it is launched is derived 
 from the fact that " logs," as a rule, do float, espe- 
 cially when they are of light material, and that 
 this log is certainly the reverse of heavy. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA, 1882. 
 
A LANDLUBBER'S LOG 
 
 OF 
 
 HIS VOYAGE AROUND CAPE HORN. 
 
 I. 
 
 AT SEA, July 20. 
 
 ON the morning of the yth inst, just as early 
 as the coming dawn made seeing possible, the 
 tugboat that had been lying alongside all night 
 showed signs of life, and the newly-arrived crew 
 were routed from the forecastle, where they had 
 retreated to sleep away the effects of their fare- 
 well spree on shore. The silent ship became 
 enlivened with the hoarse shouts of officers and 
 men, and with the rattling of cables hauled in 
 from the dock or being run over to the tug along- 
 side, and ten minutes later left her berth and was 
 heading down the river Delaware. At breakfast- 
 time Philadelphia was far astern, and the anchor 
 had been let go in mid-stream, off the gunpowder- 
 works at Wilmington, Delaware, while from two 
 little sloops alongside we received the final por- 
 tion of our cargo in the shape of several thousand 
 
 7 
 
g A LANDLUBBER'S LOG OF 
 
 kegs and canisters of rifle powder, which elevat- 
 ing article was, with an abandon that was far from 
 reassuring to any one of nervous temperament, 
 stowed away under the after-cabin and beneath 
 our very feet. Ninety tons in all were at last 
 safely battened down beneath the hatches, and 
 the cargo made complete, but dusk was upon us, 
 and we rode at anchor until the following morn- 
 ing. Again an early start, and this time with a 
 fair breeze blowing behind us, to which was spread 
 sail after sail as they were dragged from their 
 locker, sent aloft and bent upon the yards. At 
 half-past four o'clock Cape May and Cape Hen- 
 lopen were on either beam, and the pilot slid 
 down a rope's end into the little boat awaiting 
 him, and waved us a God-speed. A moment later 
 the ship, now a cloud of canvas, keeled to the 
 pressure of the fair, fresh breeze and swept out 
 upon the billows of the broad Atlantic. It was 
 from this moment of passing from the bay into 
 the ocean that we will compute the length of our 
 voyage, and will consider it ended when we pass 
 the portals of the Golden Gate, the famous en- 
 trance to the harbor of San Francisco. 
 
 In very nearly all the accounts that I have ever 
 read of people sailing away from their homes for 
 foreign lands, the characters thus outward-bound, 
 when leaving port, gaze long and earnestly at the 
 rapidly receding shore, while their hearts swell 
 
HIS VOYAGE AROUND CAPE HORN. 9 
 
 and throb with a nameless pain as the memories 
 which cluster about the land they are leaving 
 come rushing through their minds. How much 
 pleasanter it would have been for me could I but 
 have followed their example ; then might I have 
 written the regulation remarks about the feeling 
 of sadness that stole over me, as while thinking 
 of family and friends, or of the many happy mem- 
 ories of home, the white-winged ship swiftly left 
 the land. Then could I have described how it 
 grew dimmer with each fleeting moment, until at 
 last naught but a faint, misty, cloudlike streak hung 
 on the distant horizon, and as I gazed again, that 
 f. m. c. s., like unto the f. m. c. s.'s of the book-voy- 
 agers, would have faded from my sight, while a 
 single tear would have glistened for a moment on 
 my cheek, and then fallen noiselessly upon the 
 deck. All this might I have written had not that 
 saline old nautical deity, Father Neptune, promptly 
 (and with a viciousness which leads me to believe 
 the old gentleman has had a dearth of victims 
 lately) demanded his dues. I had expected an 
 attack, but neither so sudden nor so fierce a one ; 
 nor did I anticipate so complete a defeat. In 
 short, fifteen minutes after the ship left the Capes 
 I was hopelessly, helplessly sea-sick. A Japanese 
 proverb says "a sea-voyage is an inch of hell," and 
 for the greater part of six or seven days my opinion 
 on the subject of ocean travel tallied exactly with 
 

 
 JO A LANDLUBBER'S LOG OF 
 
 that of the slant-eyed philosopher who wrote those 
 words. I took no notice of anything, didn't want 
 to see or eat anything, couldn't have eaten any- 
 thing if I had wanted to, and was altogether as 
 thoroughly wretched as possible. I have no notes 
 to enter in my log for that week of internal strife ; 
 I diligently pursued the ignis-fatuus, relief, by all 
 the equally useless methods, for some unknown 
 reason recommended, and carefully compounded 
 and swallowed a dozen or fifteen " remedies for 
 sea-sickness," which disgraced the pages of the 
 captain's " family medicine book," by their pres- 
 ence among respectable and estimable prescrip- 
 tions. Time, however, accomplished what the 
 delusive medicines and mock reliefs could not, 
 and on the morning of the i5th I turned out to 
 find the sea-sickness gone and my vanished appe- 
 tite returned. The attack pulled me down in 
 weight, and has left me rather weak, but now that 
 I'm ship-shape again, I'll recover the lost ground 
 rapidly with the help of those capital tonics, fresh 
 air, plain food, plenty of exercise, and early hours. 
 We have crossed the Gulf Stream and are now 
 in mid-Atlantic, steering south, and we have also 
 worked our way over the first of the three calm 
 belts that must be crossed between the North At- 
 lantic and Cape Horn. It was tedious work, but 
 on the whole we did very well, and were lucky 
 enough not to get really stuck. These exasperat- 
 
HIS VOYAGE AROUND CAPE HORN. n 
 
 ing barriers to quick passages are called the Dol- 
 drums by sailors, and the second lies a little north 
 of the Equator, while number three is down at 
 the Tropic of Capricorn. Corresponding- calm 
 belts obstruct the navigation of the Pacific on 
 similar parallels of latitude, so that five more of 
 them must be passed over before we reach Cali- 
 fornia. The region of calms we recently were in 
 is known as the Horse Latitudes, and received 
 its name from the fact that before the days of 
 steamers, when the West Indies were supplied 
 with horses from the United States and England, 
 
 o 
 
 the vessels which carried them would often, when 
 becalmed in those latitudes, run short of water, 
 so that a great part of their living freight had to 
 be thrown overboard in order to save the lives of 
 a few, and in this way thousands of horses were 
 lost. We have also sailed through several of the 
 enormous beds of sea-weed which form the cele- 
 brated Sargasso Sea, and the effect was very 
 curious. The weed is very tough, and closely 
 knit into- huge patches, which float about, just 
 submerged, and is covered with bunches of little 
 round berries the size of a marrowfat pea. Of 
 course I have to chronicle, too, my first sight of 
 those queer little maritime wanderers, Mother 
 Gary's chickens. Never the traveller yet who 
 didn't mention them, and indeed it is a striking 
 sight, far out on the wind-swept ocean, to see 
 
12 A LANDLUBBER'S LOG OF 
 
 these tiny birds hovering closely over the surface 
 of the sea, rising as the waves rise, and sinking 
 again as the watery hillock subsides. They ap- 
 pear as tireless as steam-engines, and in their 
 curious wavering flight bear a closer resemblance 
 to bats than to birds. On Thursday a hungry 
 shark mistook the revolving brass fan which is 
 attached to the end of our patent log-line for a 
 fish, and swallowed it. The captain says this is 
 not an infrequent occurrence, although it is not 
 very often that the fans are lost, as the sharks, not 
 finding the article as toothsome as they antici- 
 pated, promptly let go. We have several extra 
 fans for just this very reason, and number two is 
 now spinning away astern. At 4 A.M. yesterday 
 morning I was awakened by hearing the mate call 
 down the companion-way to the captain that there 
 was a boat coming alongside. I hurried on some 
 clothes and went on deck, where it was quite 
 dark ; but after a minute or so I could make out 
 a long white whale-boat, with seven or eight men 
 in her, pulling for our lee quarter. It was very 
 calm, but we had been hove to and were waiting 
 for them. In a few moments they were alongside, 
 and as we could see no vessels anywhere around 
 us, I bad mad : up my mind that it was a case of 
 shipwrecked mariners afloat in an open boat, and 
 was prepared to see several haggard and starving 
 men drag themselves over the rail, when my ro- 
 
HIS VOYAGE AROUND CAPE HORN. ^ 
 
 mancing was squelched by hearing a gruff voice 
 sing out from the heaving boat below, " I say 
 there on board the ship, can you let's have some 
 late papers ?" Scene, mid-ocean on a pitch-dark 
 morning, a great ship slowly shoving ahead into 
 the darkness ; the lookout discovers a row-boat 
 full of men pulling like mad for the ship ; ship 
 hove to, and her crew crowding the bulwarks to 
 get a glimpse at the supposed rescued waifs, are 
 at the moment of their greatest suspense for the 
 welfare of the poor creatures, whom Providence 
 has directed the ship should save, requested for 
 some late newspapers. The mysterious strangers 
 were invited on board, and two or three of them 
 scrambled up, one of them an officer, who, as soon 
 as he reached the deck, began bellowing out 
 orders to the men below, and then announced 
 himself as second mate of the brig " D. A. Small," 
 of Provincetown, Massachusetts, three months out 
 on a whaling cruise, and, as he added, " devil a 
 quart of oil." After a short call of fifteen minutes 
 or so the strangers called their boat alongside and 
 bid us good-by, richer by a bundle of New York 
 and Philadelphia papers than when they came. 
 The brig, which we could now see in the breaking 
 daylight, lay some three miles astern, so that our 
 friends had a pretty hard pull for their news, for 
 rowing a heavy whale-boat in mid-ocean is a vastly 
 different description of sport than the same dis- 
 
14 A LANDLUBBER'S LOG OF 
 
 tance pulled in an ordinary row-boat on a river or 
 lake. Just after sunrise we made out a large ship 
 on the port bow, evidently bound for Europe, so 
 we unloosened the signal halliards, spread out the 
 flags, and soon were near enough for her to see 
 that we had a message for her to carry to port for 
 us. When she was fairly abeam, about two miles 
 to windward, and making a superb picture as the 
 sun shone on her broad white sails, we ran our 
 bunting aloft to the signal-gaff, and gave her our 
 name and nation ; then followed " from Philadel- 
 phia for San Francisco," "eleven days out," our 
 longitude, and "all well." In return we got, 
 " American ship Queenstown," " Rangoon for the 
 channel," "will report you wish you a pleasant 
 voyage." Then both ships dipped the American 
 colors three times and the flags were put away. 
 Following the rule that it never rains but it pours, 
 we spoke two other vessels before sunset, one a 
 French bark, belonging to a company that owns 
 ninety-nine vessels, which number it never allows 
 to increase or diminish, and which instead of 
 naming the craft comprising this large fleet, num- 
 ber them instead. The one we spoke carried the 
 figures 43 prominently displayed in black, on her 
 mainsail, and the other vessels of the company 
 carry their numbers in the same conspicuous posi- 
 tion. She was seventy-two days out from Valpa- 
 raiso, Chili, and was bound for Falmouth, England. 
 
HIS VOYAGE AROUND CAPE HORN. l $ 
 
 The third vessel spoken was also a bark, but this 
 time a Britisher, and was making for London on a 
 voyage from Bombay. Like the " Queenstown," 
 both barks promised to report us. I intend to 
 write this log but once a week, and am going to 
 give the weather, and other regular matters of 
 record at sea, a special page, where they can be 
 seen in tabulated form. Sunday will be the day 
 for this log-writing, and after the tables above 
 mentioned, and the incidents of the week are 
 noted down, I shall try and give you some idea 
 of what life on a merchantman is like, and how 
 Jack fares, and what he does on a voyage round 
 the stormy cape. 
 
A LANDLUBBER'S LOG OF 
 
 Table giving daily Latitude, Longitude, Miles sailed, Temperature at 
 noon, and Remarks on the Weather, etc., from July 9 to July 27 
 inclusive. 
 
 July 9. Lat. 38 21' N. Ship's run 134 miles.* 
 
 Lon. 72 18' W. Temp, at noon, 73. 
 Weather fine and cool. 
 
 July 10. Lat. 38 06' N. Run 140 miles. 
 
 Lon. 69 20' W. Temp, at noon, 78. 
 
 Weather fine. 
 
 July II. Lat. 37 53' N. Run 134 miles. 
 
 Lon. 65 45' W. Temp, at noon, 81. 
 
 Clear and cool all day. Squally during the night. 
 
 July 12. Lat. 37 29' N. Run 205 miles. 
 
 Lon. 61 16' W. Temp, at noon, 78. 
 
 Weather very fine. 
 
 July 13. Lat. 36 49 r N. Run 226 miles. 
 
 Lon. 56 36' W. Temp, at noon, 79. 
 
 Weather fine, except occasional short and light squalls during morning. 
 Sea rough. 
 
 July 14. Lat. 36 31 ' N. Run 222 miles. 
 
 Lon. 51 45' W. Temp, at noon, 79. 
 
 Weather fine. 
 
 July 15. Lat. 35 36' N. Run 226 miles. 
 
 Lon. 47 09' W. Temp, at noon, 80. 
 
 Weather fine. Sea running high. 
 
 July 1 6. Lat. 33 59' N. Run 173 miles. 
 
 Lon. 44 21' W. Temp, at noon, 80. 
 
 Fine weather continues. Sea rough. 
 
 July 17. Lat. 32 34 X N. Run 138 miles. 
 
 Lon. 42 29' W. Temp, at noon, 82. 
 
 Weather fine. Light airs. 
 
 * Nautical miles. 
 
HIS VOYAGE AROUND CAPE HORN. 
 
 July 1 8. Lat. 31 50' N. Run 52 miles. 
 
 Lon. 41 42' W. Temp, at noon, 82. 
 
 Weather fine and warm. Light airs and calms. 
 
 July 19. Lat. 30 58' N. Run 56 miles. 
 
 Lon. 41 47' W. Temp, at noon, 88. 
 
 Weather fine and warm. Light airs all A.M. Got the N.E. trade 
 winds about 3 P.M. 
 
 July 20. Lat. 28 ii x N. Run 174 miles. 
 
 Lon. 41 24' W. Temp, at noon, 82. 
 
 Fine weather all day. Squally at night. 
 
 July 21. Lat. 24 38' N. Run 224 miles. 
 
 Lon. 40 22 X W. Temp, at noon, 83. 
 
 Same weather as yesterday. Sea very high and rough. 
 
 July 22. Lat. 21 13' N. Run 218 miles. 
 
 Lon. 39 37' W. Temp, at noon, 82. 
 
 Squalls at short intervals during morning, and again late at night. 
 
 July 23. Lat. 19 oi x N. Run 133 miles. 
 
 Lon. 39 27' W. Temp, at noon, 82. 
 
 Weather very fine. 
 
 July 24. Lat. 1 6 38' N. Run 1 80 miles. 
 
 Lon. 37 40' W. Temp, at noon, 82. 
 
 Weather still fine. 
 
 July 25. Lat. 14 n 7 N. Run 160 miles. 
 
 Lon. 36 20' W. Temp, at noon, 82. 
 
 Weather fine. Several dry squalls during the day. Wind died away 
 towards evening. 
 
 July 26. Lat. 13 ii'N. Run 70 miles. 
 
 Lon. 35 59' W. Temp, at noon, 84. 
 
 Weather beautiful. Light air and calms. 
 
 July 27. Lat. 11 54' N. Run 78 miles. 
 
 Lon. 35 36' W. Temp, at noon, 85. 
 
 Rain-squalls before sunrise. Clear and warm all day. Continued 
 calms. Lost N.E. trade winds to-day. 
 
A LANDLUBBERS LOG UF 
 
 II. 
 
 AT SEA, July 27. 
 
 THE above table brings me up to date as far as 
 our daily records of position, distance sailed, and 
 weather reports are concerned, and a glance at it 
 will show how uniformly fine the weather has been 
 since we left Philadelphia, the few squalls we have 
 experienced coming as a rule at night, and although 
 the sea has been rough on several occasions, the 
 ship has ridden like a cork and the decks been as 
 dry as a bone. I might say, in explanation of the 
 tables, that a nautical day is from meridian to me- 
 ridian, that is to say, from noon to noon, and when, 
 as under to-day's heading, I say we ran seventy- 
 eight miles, I mean that distance was covered from 
 twelve o'clock yesterday to twelve o'clock to-day. 
 
 July 23. In the evening a flying-fish that struck 
 one of the lower sails fell on deck, and being the 
 first one I have had a close view of, was a curiosity ; 
 it measured about nine inches in length, and was 
 shaped like a chub. The next morning I found 
 it nicely broiled on my plate at breakfast, and 
 can recommend the species as both delicate and 
 well flavored. Flying-fish, the mate tells me, are 
 about the only deep-water fish that have scales, 
 nearly all others met at sea, from the dolphins to 
 the whales, wearing a skin. Passed two small 
 
HIS VOYAGE AROUND CAPE HORN. l g 
 
 vessels bound north ; shortly after dark they 
 passed across the face of the newly arisen moon, 
 and formed for the moment a very pretty sil- 
 houette. Later, made out the celebrated constel- 
 lation of the Southern Cross, on the southern 
 horizon ; but it will be some time before we see 
 it in its most beautiful phase, that is, shining with 
 great brilliancy directly above us. 
 
 July 25. During the morning passed through a 
 large fleet of nautilus, those renowned little crea- 
 tures of the jelly-fish species, that spread their 
 tiny film-like sails in delicate shades of pink and 
 blue, and cruise about over the waves, sometimes 
 alone or in little groups, and again, as I first saw 
 them, in vast numbers. The sunlight playing on 
 the thousands of rising and falling sails made a 
 very pretty picture. We were slopping along at 
 a lazy pace when we overtook the fleet, which was 
 running before a gentle breeze just strong enough 
 to suit the sailing qualities of its tiny craft, and 
 after scoring several misses in my attempts to 
 catch one, I succeeded at last in slipping a bucket 
 directly beneath a beauty and hauled it aboard 
 without disturbing it in the slightest degree. 
 Placing the bucket on deck, I went forward to call 
 the carpenter and show him my prize. As we 
 started aft we saw one of the ship's cats approach 
 the bucket and proceed to investigate the nau- 
 tilus, doubtless attracted by its fishy odor, and 
 
2Q A LANDLUBBER'S LOG OF 
 
 before we could interfere puss had captured the 
 prize, and was scampering away with it. Another 
 name common to the nautilus is that of Portu- 
 guese men-of-war, and this specimen promptly 
 gave evidence of its warlike nature by stinging 
 the cat before she had carried it across the deck, 
 pussy dropping it with a terrified yowl, and van- 
 ishing into her sanctum, the galley, as though a 
 dozen dogs were at her heels. During the rest 
 of the day she sat in a corner, uttering plaintive 
 meyows, and alternately rubbing her cheeks on 
 the deck or scraping her swollen tongue with one 
 of her front paws. 
 
 July 26. The ship becalmed. Took a plunge- 
 bath overboard, with a light line around me, the 
 captain made such a fuss about sharks, however, 
 that I soon came on deck. This bringing me up 
 to date, I will close the log for this week with an 
 account of the ship herself, and from week to 
 week hereafter tell you of her officers and crew, 
 and how we pass the time. 
 
 The " Pactolus" is a Maine-built ship, and was 
 launched in the winter of 1864; she was built by 
 her present owners, a New York firm, whose 
 house-flags flutter at the peaks of some of the 
 finest clippers of our mercantile marine. Her 
 measurements are as follows : length one him- 
 
 o 
 
 dred and ninety-eight feet, beam thirty-eight feet 
 six inches, and she registers twelve hundred and 
 
HIS VOYAGE AROUND CAPE HORN. 2 I 
 
 five tons. She is full ship-rigged, carries very 
 heavy spars, and when under full sail spreads 
 fifteen thousand square feet of canvas. Her 
 model is graceful, her bows as sharp and sym- 
 metrical as those of a yacht, and she rides the 
 waves as easily and buoyantly as a duck a coun- 
 try pond. To save myself the trouble of describ- 
 ing her various parts, I offer the accompanying 
 sketches of the arrangement of her deck and 
 cabin, which I hope will give you a good idea of 
 the ship's various departments. 
 
 The poop-deck is elevated above the main deck 
 about four or five feet, and the top of the after- 
 house is also used as a deck, and is the favorite 
 lounging-place of the officers and captain in the 
 early evening, the tops of the skylights forming 
 comfortable seats. There is also a hammock 
 swung there from the mizzen-mast to the mizzen 
 shrouds, and the spanker-boom, especially when 
 the sail is set, affords a capital resting-place. 
 
 Julyip. The ship surrounded by a large school 
 of porpoises all day. It numbered probably over 
 two hundred fish. They seemed to be divided 
 into families of five, and sometimes six or seven 
 fish each. These would swim about in a perfect 
 line, all abreast, all curving out of water at once, 
 and each tail disappearing at the same instant. 
 The calm water was alive with these files of ma- 
 rine soldiers, whose drilling would reflect honor 
 
22 
 
 A LANDLUBBER'S LOG OF 
 
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HIS VOYAGE AROUND CAPE HORN. 
 
 on the State Fencibles themselves. The captain 
 tried to harpoon one during the morning, but they 
 would not approach close enough, as only when 
 the ship has some head-way will they venture to 
 play about the bow. A breeze sprang up about 
 three o'clock, and the second mate lashed himself 
 to the martingale (which is the bar of wood point- 
 ing downward from the bowsprit) to try his luck 
 at sticking a porpoise, numbers of which were 
 playing underneath him. After one blank cast 
 he drove the harpoon deep into a regular old 
 warrior, who struggled like a Trojan, but who was 
 finally landed on deck, all hands having given a 
 hand to the rope and singing a sailor's song as they 
 hove him over the rail. He measured nine feet six 
 inches in length. That evening and all day Thurs- 
 day we regaled ourselves with porpoise steaks, 
 liver, and brains served up in various styles. The 
 first tasted not unlike very coarse juiceless beef, 
 the second had the delicate flavor of black mud, 
 but the brains were really quite palatable. On the 
 appearance of a plate of steaks for Friday's break- 
 fast, the unanimous vote of captain, mate, and 
 passengers consigned about two hundred pounds 
 of still uncooked meat to a watery grave, where 
 it probably served as the dinner of some hungry 
 shark. From inside the jawbone we got nearly 
 a quart of very fine oil, which is highly prized by 
 jewellers on account of its purity. 
 
A LANDLUBBER'S LOG OF 
 
 Table for week ending August 3. 
 
 July 28. Lat. 11 42' N. Run 13 miles. 
 
 Lon. 45 42' W. Temp, at noon, 86. 
 
 Weather fine. Calms and cat's-paws. 
 
 July 29. Lat. 10 17' N. Run 109 miles. 
 
 Lon. 34 52' W. Temp, at noon, 85. 
 
 Weather fine. Light breezes and calms. 
 
 July 30 Lat. 9 57' N. Run 46 miles. 
 
 Lon. 34 04' W. Temp, at noon, 84. 
 
 Weather fine. 
 
 July 31. Lat. 8 13' N. Run 136 miles. 
 
 Lon. 32 38' W. Temp, at noon, 8l. 
 
 Squalls all day; very heavy rain during afternoon. 
 
 August I. Lat. 7 19' N. Run 218 miles. 
 
 Lon. 28 57' W. Temp, at noon, 82. 
 
 Weather fine. Sea rough and heavy. 
 
 August 2. -Lat. 6 28' N. Run 139 miles. 
 
 Lon. 28 25' W. Temp, al noon, 83. 
 
 Weather fine. Got S.E. trade winds during morning. Sea remains 
 rough. 
 
 August 3. Lat. 4 51' N. Run 146 miles. 
 
 Lon. 28 34' W. Temp, at noon, 83. 
 
 Weather fine. Sea still rough. 
 
HIS VOYAGE AROUND CAPE HORN. 
 
 III. 
 
 AT SEA, SUNDAY, August 3. 
 
 ANOTHER week of beautiful weather, the first 
 three days being mostly calm. These calms, 
 although great bugbears to the captain, who frets 
 at the delays they cause in the passage, are to me 
 very pleasant. The contrast is indeed great be- 
 tween when, with every stitch of canvas set, we 
 go plunging along before a stiff breeze, reeling 
 off twelve knots the hour, the ocean covered with 
 white-caps as far as the eye can see, and, when 
 not a breath of air stirring, the ship rolls heavily 
 on the long swells that glisten under the sun like 
 metal. In the shadow of the ship the clear blue 
 water makes me yearn to tumble in and take a 
 swim, but the little word " sharks" explains why I 
 curb my desires and remain on deck. Still, a few 
 buckets of salt water poured over me by one of 
 the sailors is enough of a substitute to take the 
 edge off my disappointment. 
 
 While thus becalmed we often lose steerage- 
 way altogether, swinging all around the compass. 
 The sails, swung backwards and forwards by the 
 motion of the vessel, slap against the masts at reg- 
 ular intervals with loud reports, and the timbers 
 creak and groan at a great rate. Calms wear out 
 
 B 3 
 
A LANDLUBBER'S LOG OF 
 
 a ship's sails and rigging much faster than breezes 
 do, on account of the constant chafing they un- 
 dergo. To avoid this in a measure the parts 
 most exposed are thickly padded with yarn, etc. ; 
 this is called " chafing-gear," and is taken off when 
 going into port. 
 
 The sunsets on these calm evenings are exquis- 
 itely beautiful, especially the afterglow, when soft 
 rays of almost every imaginable color shoot up 
 from the horizon, spreading out like huge fans, 
 the different tints blending together as delicately 
 as the colors in mother-of-pearl, which illegitimate 
 jewel is perhaps the best simile I could find to 
 describe the sky at these times. In fact, since 
 leaving port we have enjoyed a series of sunsets 
 beautiful beyond description. The ocean is the 
 place to see them at their best, and here in the 
 tropics are witnessed the most beautiful ones. 
 Sometimes, when after a blow the clouds are wild 
 and broken, the effects are positively startling ; 
 no artist could ever hope to reproduce them, and 
 were they transferred to canvas, people would 
 probably pronounce them strangely unnatural. 
 
 I shall devote this week's entry in the log to a 
 description of the officers and crew, starting of 
 course with the captain, or, to give him his sailor 
 name, " the old man." This title, which is always 
 applied in utter disregard of the number of birth- 
 days the skipper may have seen, is in the case of 
 
HIS VOYAGE AROUND CAPE HORN. 2 7 
 
 Captain C , who commands the " Pactolus," 
 
 most certainly a misnomer, for he is only thirty 
 years of age. About five feet ten inches in height, 
 with broad shoulders, a strongly-built figure, brown 
 hair and eyes, and a well-tanned face, smoothly 
 shaven with the exception of a small moustache, 
 the captain is as handsome as he is pleasant, and 
 a thorough sailor and navigator both in theory 
 and practice. He is a genial, good-natured fellow, 
 who takes an absorbing interest in his profession 
 and its duties, and seems also to take great pleas- 
 ure in dispelling the darkness of a landlubber's 
 ignorance with which I am at first naturally be- 
 fogged. Under his patient guidance the mysteries 
 of the maze of rigging have been made clear, the 
 unknown lingo of technical orders has become 
 sense to my ears, and I have learned to box the 
 compass, heave the log, handle the wheel, and 
 (with considerable assistance as yet) " shoot the 
 sun." Every day when he locates our position 
 on the chart he chats with me about it as though 
 I were as good a navigator as himself, and alto- 
 gether impresses me with the conviction that it 
 would have been difficult to have found a pleas- 
 anter commander. Sprung from a race of hardy 
 New England mariners, and hailing from the 
 coast of Maine, he has from his fifteenth year 
 pursued a sailor's life, and has mounted from the 
 forecastle of a coaster to the quarter-deck of a 
 
2 g A LANDLUBBER'S LOG OF 
 
 clipper. He joined the " Pactolus" as third mate, 
 successively filled the berths of second and first 
 mates, and three years ago, after eight years' 
 service on board, was given command. He loves 
 his ship, which for so many years has been his 
 home, and is, as I said, devoted to his profession, 
 spending a great part of his time each day in 
 working up sights, taking observations, fixing his 
 charts and log-books, and in poring over nautical 
 records and sailing directions. For the govern- 
 ment he keeps a most complicated meteorological 
 journal, which involves no small amount of labor, 
 and for which he has been very highly compli- 
 mented by the authorities at Washington. Proud 
 of his ship, it is his delight to keep her in perfect 
 order, and to sustain her good name for rapid 
 passages, and on this voyage is racing with the 
 clipper-ship "Joseph S. Spinney," a two-thousand- 
 tonner, that sailed from New York for San Fran- 
 cisco five days before we passed to sea. The 
 two captains are old friends and rivals, and for 
 the last three years the two ships have once each 
 twelvemonth started at the same time for Califor- 
 nia. Twice the " Pactolus" triumphantly scored 
 the best run, but last season the " Spinney" won 
 in a canter after a rattling passage of one hundred 
 'and seventeen days. Perhaps, however, the "Pac- 
 tolus" was not put through her best paces, for 
 Captain C was for some reason compelled to 
 
HIS VOYAGE AROUND CAPE HORN. 2 g 
 
 shift his command for the time being, and another 
 skipper took his ship to San Francisco for him. 
 This voyage he is resolved to retrieve last year's 
 defeat, and it will be a bitter pill for him to swal- 
 low if the "Spinney" scores the better run. Nat- 
 urally I back him in his wish for victory. At vari- 
 ance with the habits of most sailors, the captain 
 never smokes, and while at sea never drinks 
 either wines or liquors, but for all that frowns not 
 on those petty vices if practised by his officers or 
 crew. 
 
 Mr. B , the first mate, is the captain's senior 
 
 by one year, .and like him is also a New Eng- 
 lander, being a native of Connecticut. He is 
 stouter than the captain, has a short, reddish 
 beard, blue eyes, rosy cheeks, and when rigged 
 out in a pea-jacket, high-top boots, and a big flat- 
 topped Scotch cap, is the picture of a jolly sailor. 
 He, too, is a thorough seaman, and he gives 
 his orders with a snap and vim that sends the 
 sailors about their duties in double-quick time. 
 Like the captain, Mr. B is very kind in ex- 
 plaining anything I wish to know about the vessel. 
 He has been in many parts of the world in the 
 course of his life at sea, and has plenty of yarns 
 to spin of his adventures and experiences, some 
 of which are most interesting and amusing, even if 
 they are here and there inlaid with unmistakable 
 " taffy." He is a great smoker and reader, is 
 
 3* 
 
A LANDLUBBER'S LOG OF 
 
 well posted on all sorts of topics, and takes much 
 pleasure in the large supply of cheap reprints I 
 have on board with me, having in fact read a 
 great many more of them than I have myself. 
 Mr. B is slightly English in his feelings, hav- 
 ing married an English lady and lived there at 
 various periods of his life, Liverpool, in fact, being 
 his home. We are great friends, and I spend 
 hours on deck with him on the evenings when it 
 is his early watch. 
 
 Our second mate, Mr. D , is a character, 
 
 and promises to be a most important element in 
 making my voyage a pleasant one. As to his 
 capabilities I give the verdict of the captain and 
 mate, who declare him to be a capital sailor and 
 second officer, but a failure when it comes to the 
 science of navigation. However, he doesn't have 
 to take a hand in that branch of the ship's routine, 
 and so it don't matter. He daily goes through 
 the process of taking sights, as his superior officers 
 do, but they smile and say his efforts are a delu- 
 sion and a snare which they are not to be taken 
 in by, although they are too good-natured to let 
 him know that they see through his attempt to be 
 judged a navigator. He claims to be from Maine, 
 but again his superiors doubt him, and style him 
 a " blue nose," by which they mean a native of 
 Nova Scotia. What they form their opinions 
 upon I cannot tell. Mr. D is a fine-looking 
 
HIS VOYAGE AROUND CAPE HORN. 31 
 
 fellow, of powerful build and dark complexion, 
 and is, I should judge, about twenty-seven or 
 twenty-eight years old. His character may be 
 described as being a combination of Mark Tapley 
 and the Baron Munchausen, for good nature and 
 light-heartedness seem to be his natural state of 
 mind, and his fictions are continuous and colossal. 
 Whatever he does he seems to enjoy doing it: 
 whether it be spinning a yarn, singing a song, 
 playing a fiddle, or damning the crew, he does it 
 with a hearty good-will, and does it with a chuckle 
 and a smile. But his strong point is the facility 
 and readiness with which he can invent and relate 
 stories of such utter improbability that the tales 
 of the aforementioned baron seem by comparison 
 but mild effort at drawing the long-bow. He is 
 always ready to spin these entirely unbelievable 
 yarns, and does so with an earnestness and gusto 
 which are most amusing, and what makes them 
 even more attractive, they are all related as being 
 his own personal experiences. Mr. D pos- 
 sesses an old violin, fearful in tone, and with but 
 two strings, on which he spends most of his 
 watches below in sawing into a wheezing accom- 
 paniment to the comic ditties that he loves to sing, 
 interspersing them with jokes and sayings of the 
 nature that delight variety theatre patrons and 
 the gods of the gallery. Often he will bring this 
 treasured instrument into the carpenter-shop, and, 
 
?2 A LANDLUBBER'S LOG OF 
 
 _/ 
 
 seated on a low stool, will amuse himself and an 
 audience consisting of the carpenter, the cook, the 
 steward, and myself with his capital imitations of 
 negro and Dutch performers. These perform- 
 ances delight him greatly, and he often laughs till 
 the tears trickle down his cheeks. 
 
 The carpenter is a very important man on 
 board, and is known as " Chips." He is busily 
 engaged from morning till night, and stands no 
 watches. Our Chips is a middle-aged, pleasant- 
 faced Yankee, a cousin of the captain, and a very 
 companionable man, in whose shop I spend many 
 a pleasant hour whittling sticks and chatting. 
 Then come those important functionaries, the stew- 
 ard a<*id cook, both genuine almond-eyed China- 
 men, who can talk a limited amount of pigeon- 
 English, and are very queer chaps. Of the two 
 the steward is the more accomplished, and is 
 making praiseworthy efforts to improve his lim- 
 ited knowledge of English by diligently studying 
 with a spelling-book and slate. Nearly every 
 evenine he devotes an hour to his task, and 
 
 o 
 
 sometimes I help him along, much to his delight. 
 On board his title is simply "steward," but he 
 says, " Me leal namee b'long Chin Lee ; me comee 
 flom Tin Sin (Tsin Tsin) ; b'long vellie nice place 
 
 /"M * 
 
 in China. 
 
 Thus it is seen that I am very pleasantly fixed 
 as regards the personnel of the ship's officers, and 
 
HIS VOYAGE AROUND CAPE HORN. 
 
 33 
 
 this brings me to the crew, among whom should be 
 placed the last three mentioned personages. The 
 sailors number sixteen, and are, the mate tells 
 me, an average lot. Their nationality is various, 
 England, France, Norway, Sweden, Austria, Italy, 
 and Ireland all contributing one or more speci- 
 mens of their mariners, and they seem a willing 
 and hardy set of Jacks. Later I will speak of 
 them again. Last comes the ship's boy, at best a 
 thankless berth, and when unpleasant, unpleasant 
 with a vengeance. Our boy is the only American 
 before the mast. He is from Girard College, and 
 like many a boy before him, longed to be a sailor, 
 so, after useless expostulations from his teachers 
 and friends, shipped on board the " Pactolus." 
 He acknowledges already that the life is not what 
 he had pictured it to be, but pluckily takes a 
 cheerful view of it. I fancy he has not been fully 
 tested yet, and that there is plenty of experience 
 in store for him that will try his mettle far more 
 than that he has already gone through. It's a 
 hard school, and no mistake, but he has good- 
 natured superiors, and that counts for everything 
 in the life of a ship's boy, for with tyrants for 
 officers, as is so often the case, the ship's boy has 
 about as utterly miserable an existence as can be 
 imagined. 
 
 With the addition of my fellow-passenger, an 
 American gentleman of about thirty years of age, 
 
34 A LANDLUBBER'S LOG OF 
 
 who is bound for California with the intention of 
 going" into business there, we number, all told, 
 twenty-five hands, and next week I will try and 
 give you some idea of our various daily occupa- 
 tions. 
 
 
HIS VOYAGE AROUND CAPE HORN. 
 
 Table for week ending August IO 
 
 August 4. Lat. 2 26' N. Run 155 miles. 
 
 Lon. 29 37' W. Temp, at noon, 84. 
 
 Weather beautiful. Sea moderating. 
 
 August 5. Lat. o 4<y S. Run 190 miles. 
 
 Lon. 30 48' W. Temp, at noon, 79. 
 
 Weather fine. Crossed the equator at 7.30 A.M., twenty-seven and one- 
 half days from Capes of Delaware. Heavy clew after sunset. 
 
 August 6. Lat. 2 35' S. Run 127 miles. 
 
 Lon. 31 52' W. Temp, at noon, 79. 
 
 Squally between I and 8 A.M. Rest of the day very fine. Sea rough 
 and ugly. 
 
 August 7. Lat. 4 54' S. Run 177 miles. 
 
 Lon. 33 37' W. Temp, at noon, 80. 
 
 Fine weather. Rough cross-sea. Ship twisting badly. Passed fifteen 
 miles west of island of Fernando de Noronha at 12.30 A.M. 
 
 August 8. Lat. 6 45' S. Run 162 miles. 
 
 Lon. 35 29' W. Temp, at noon, 82. 
 
 Squalls and rain till 12 M. Land in sight about Cape Branco, bearing 
 W.S.W. to W. by N. Distance about eighteen miles after I P.M. Weather 
 fine all afternoon and evening. 
 
 August 9. Lat. 7 44 S. Run 136 miles. 
 
 Lon. 34 39' W. Temp, at noon, 80. 
 
 Weather beautiful at 12 M. Were within six miles of the coast of 
 Brazil. Tacked ship and stood to the eastward at that hour. 
 
 August 10. Lat. 9 32' S. Run 145 miles. 
 
 Lon. 34 12' W. Temp, at noon, 80. 
 
 Weather very fine. 
 
36 A LANDLUBBER'S LOG OF 
 
 TV. 
 
 AT SEA, SUNDAY, August 10. 
 
 August 7. During the day, we passed between 
 the Rocas Reef and the island of Fernando de 
 Noronha. The former bearing west, some sixty 
 miles on our starboard, and the island quarter that 
 distance on our port beam. 
 
 The Rocas is a circular coral reef, mostly just 
 submerged, and about two miles in diameter, and 
 is the only one of its kind in the west Atlantic. 
 Lying as it does about one hundred and twenty- 
 five miles off the northeastern extremity of the 
 Brazilian coast, directly in the great highway 
 across the equator, it is considered one of, if not 
 the most dangerous spots in that ocean. On its 
 treacherous coral rocks are piled the timbers of 
 many fine ships, which, without warning of any 
 kind, have rushed headlong to their destruction. 
 Fernando de Noronha the outlines of which 
 were visible from deck is an island about six 
 and a half miles long by two miles wide, and is 
 by far the largest of a small cluster. The shore 
 is generally very steep and rocky, at one place 
 towering into a rugged peak eight hundred feet 
 high ; but there are one or two small bays, where 
 sandy beaches may be found. It is said to be a 
 
HIS VOYAGE AROUND CAPE HORN. 
 
 beautiful spot, having a great variety of tropical 
 vegetation, is owned by the Brazilian government, 
 and is used as a convict station and place of exile 
 for political offenders. They most certainly have 
 a preferable prison to that of the subjects of the 
 Czar, who are waltzed off to Siberia. 
 
 The same day we ran past two barks, probably 
 bound for Rio, and another flying-fish contributed 
 himself to our breakfast bill of fare by flying on 
 board. Of the many thousands we see all around 
 the ship, I wish more would follow his example. 
 
 August 8. Sighted the coast of Brazil, while 
 on an inshore tack, beating past Cape Saint Roque. 
 To me it only seemed a low streak, looking like 
 a fog-bank, but the captain assured me it was 
 land. During that night we continued standing 
 in towards shore. 
 
 August 9. At sunrise the coast bore about 
 twenty miles to the westward. The breeze was 
 very light, and, although every stitch of canvas 
 was set, the ship moved but slowly. It was as 
 beautiful a day as I ever saw. The sky, a delicate 
 turquoise shade, formed a charming contrast to 
 the deep sapphire blue of the ocean, whose sur- 
 face was scarcely more than rippled by the light 
 airs, and the sun, instead of broiling us alive as it 
 is in the habit of doing people down here, only 
 raised the quicksilver to "eighty." At 10 A.M. the 
 nearest land lay about twelve miles on the star- 
 
 4 
 
38 A LANDLUBBER'S LOG OF 
 
 board beam, the ship then heading about south. 
 Going aloft with a glass to get a better view, I 
 soon made out a fleet of small sails standing off 
 shore, and heading so as to pass close to us. 
 Half an hour brought them close enough for the 
 captain to pronounce them catamarans, and a few 
 minutes later the entire fleet of perhaps twenty- 
 five or thirty passed within short range, several 
 going so close under the stern that we could have 
 tossed a penny over them. These curious boats, 
 or rather rafts, are made by lashing side by side 
 some four or five large logs with pointed ends, 
 leaving room enough between each log for the free 
 passage of the water. Over these is laid a plank 
 deck, through which is stuck the mast. At the 
 back is lashed a raised seat, on which the helms- 
 man sits or leans to steer, which he does with a 
 long oar. The catamarans were mostly rigged 
 with leg-of-mutton sails, but some few had small 
 spankers, and one high-toned captain sported a 
 jib about the size of a healthy towel. The men 
 who comprised their small crews (some carrying 
 two and others three) were dark-skinned chaps 
 with straight black hair, and are the Indian fisher- 
 men of the coast. This was apparent from the 
 nets that we could see hanging on the masts, to- 
 gether with a big bag, which probably held their 
 provisions. The fleet alJ passed us, heading north- 
 east, in which direction lie the fishing-banks that 
 
HIS VOYAGE AROUND CAPE HORN. 
 
 39 
 
 supply Pernambuco. By noon we were only six 
 miles off shore. A little to the southward the 
 land receded, showing- us the entrance to Per- 
 nambuco harbor, and had we been bound there, a 
 few hours would have found us at anchor off the 
 city front. Pernambuco is the third city in im- 
 portance in Brazil, and has about one hundred 
 and twenty-five thousand inhabitants. The city 
 proper we could not see, but perched on tli2 
 summit of one of the high hills that form a rango 
 of the town the suburb of Olinda was plainly vis- 
 ible from deck. The houses and churches, which 
 are all white, looked very pretty, imbedded as they 
 were on the green hills. Some little distance from 
 the village stands an old convent in the centre of 
 a cocoanut grove, three trees of which tower far 
 above their fellows, and are seen a long distance 
 off when coming in from sea. 
 
 From aloft I could easily make out the line of 
 surf breaking on the beach, and also a low fort 
 which was built a long time ago by the Dutch, the 
 stones in its foundation being brought all the way 
 from. Europe. Tacking again at 12.30, we ran 
 direct off shore before a fine land breeze, and 
 by 4 P.M. had sunk the land astern. About two 
 o'clock my attention was attracted by what looked 
 like a patch of breakers, half a mile on the weather 
 bow. The second mate noticed it at the same 
 moment, and pronounced it to be a couple of 
 
A LANDLUBBER'S LOG OF 
 
 whales playing or fighting. So it proved, and 
 soon afterwards many others were seen blowing 
 in the same direction. They gradually drew 
 nearer, and two monsters followed us, playing in 
 our wake, while others were rising all around the 
 ship. The mate and I went up in the mizzen 
 cross-trees, from which elevated seat the entire 
 forms of the big ones astern could be plainly 
 seen. They would come within a hundred feet 
 of the ship, rise and blow, and then sink a few 
 feet below the surface for a minute, and swim on 
 again. After half an hour of this performance 
 the captain loaded his rifle, and just as one 
 spouted let drive. The slug struck " full and by;" 
 the whale stung by the pain threw himself almost 
 out of the water, coming down with a sounding 
 smack, and throwing the spray for many yards. 
 On striking the water he fluked or dived, his tre- 
 mendous tail giving an extra flourish or so before 
 it disappeared ; at the same time his mate van- 
 ished. Shortly afterwards I took a shot at one 
 who was blowing about two hundred yards away 
 on the port quarter, and the result was very sat- 
 isfactory to the whale. 
 
 They were of the sperm variety, and blew a 
 small cloud of what looked at a little distance like 
 white smoke or steam. The two big ones that 
 came so near were at least seventy feet long. 
 This being my first peep at a whale, and such an 
 
HIS VOYAGE AROUND CAPE HORN. ^ 
 
 exceptionally good one, I must mark the day down 
 as a red-letter one. 
 
 The voyage from the United States or England 
 to San Francisco is divided by mariners into five 
 parts : first, from, say Philadelphia, to the equator 
 in the Atlantic ; second, from the equator to the 
 fiftieth degree of latitude south ; third, thence to 
 the fiftieth degree south, in the Pacific ; fourth, to 
 the equator ; and, fifth, to San Francisco. The 
 first of these stretches we have completed, having 
 crossed the equator on Tuesday morning, about 
 eight o'clock, after a run of four thousand and 
 fifty-five miles in twenty-seven and one-half days, 
 being an average of one hundred and forty-seven 
 and one-half miles a day, or about six and one- 
 eighth knots an hour. For the season the run is 
 a very good one, and the captain is much pleased. 
 According to ancient lore I am now a member of 
 Father Neptune's large family by virtue of having 
 crossed the line. I had always imagined the 
 equator, at sea, to be a place where perpetual 
 calms reigned, and the mercury never sank below 
 1 00. This idea was rather upset by seeing us 
 run over on a cool day, before a stiff breeze, and 
 the sea high enough to keep the spray flying in 
 clouds over our bow. On leaving the "line" 
 astern we also bid farewell for a time to the North 
 Star, and expect again to catch a glimpse of his 
 twinkle about the first week in October. 
 
 4* 
 
A LANDLUBBER'S LOG OF 
 
 And now to tell you how we work and play. 
 The captain, in the first place, is lord paramount ; 
 he stands no watch, does just as he chooses, and 
 is of course unaccountable to any one on board. 
 His word is law, and he must be obeyed without 
 a question in everything ; he has the power to 
 turn his officers off duty, and even to break them 
 and make them do sailors' work and live in the 
 fo'castle, so that to ship with a tyrannical skipper 
 generally insures both officers and men a disa- 
 greeable time of it. 
 
 Captain C , however, is anything but a ty- 
 rant, although he keeps the ship under strict dis- 
 cipline. He spends his time about as follows : 
 rising very early, he goes on deck and talks over 
 the night's work with the officer on watch. Di- 
 rectly after breakfast he winds all the chronome- 
 ters and clocks, and takes a sight for longitude. 
 During the morning he overlooks the sail-makers, 
 takes other sights for longitude, writes the official 
 log for the previous night, and at noon takes an 
 observation for latitude. Just as the sun reaches 
 the meridian he orders eight bells to be struck, 
 and then the clocks are regulated for the day. 
 All other hours are struck on the authority of the 
 clock in the binnacle, but at noon the man at the 
 wheel must wait the captain's word. Dinner, at 
 quarter-past twelve o'clock, being over, he marks 
 off the ship's position on the charts and lays out 
 
HIS VOYAGE AROUND CAPE HORN. 
 
 her course for the following day. In the afternoon 
 he is generally on deck for an hour or two, and the 
 rest of the time reading in his cabin. After supper 
 (5.30 P.M.) we sit out on deck till about nine or 
 half-past nine o'clock, and then turn in, before 
 which the captain always writes up the log for the 
 day and also his private journal. About once a 
 week he goes all over the ship on a tour of inspec- 
 tion. 
 
 The first mate, or the mate, as he is always 
 called, par excellence, is the prime minister of the 
 vessel's government. He attends to the allotting 
 of all work, sees that it is properly done, and 
 when not on deck leaves his orders to be carried 
 out by the second mate's watch. While below, he 
 reads in the daytime, and only sleeps at night, 
 averaging about five hours' sleep a day from Phil- 
 adelphia to " Frisco." The mate also keeps the 
 ship-log, and attends to the reception and delivery 
 of the cargo. Like the captain, he takes obser- 
 vations, and keeps a separate set of charts for his 
 own private use. 
 
 The second mate's berth is a sort of semi-re- 
 sponsible one, he is neither officer nor foremast- 
 man, but half-way between the two. The crew 
 have a very little respect for his position, and call 
 him " the sailors' waiter," on account of his having 
 to serve them with yarn, twine, marline-spikes, etc., 
 of which he has charge. He is expected by the 
 
44 A LANDLUBBER'S LOG OF 
 
 captain to preserve his dignity with the men, and 
 at the same time is looked down upon by the mate, 
 and forced to work with the crew, not being ex- 
 empt from plunging his hands into the tar-pot, or 
 laying aloft to furl or reef the topsails. His state- 
 room is in the cabin, but he takes his meals with the 
 carpenter at the second table, which is served in the 
 same cabin where the captain, mate, and passengers 
 take their meals, but not until they are finished. 
 
 " Chips" is a most necessary person on board, 
 and is hard at work from morning till night mend- 
 ing battens, making blocks, calking seams, etc. 
 As he works all day he is exempt from night duty, 
 and is only called in case all hands are needed, as 
 when we tack ship. Besides his regular carpenter- 
 work he attends to the distribution of fresh water 
 every morning, and to putting out the side-lights 
 each evening at sunset ; it is also his duty to test 
 the well morning and evening, to see how much 
 water the ship is making. 
 
 The steward and cook will both come in next 
 week, when a masterly essay on "Our Cuisine" 
 will form the chief feature of the entry. The 
 crew are divided into two watches of eight men 
 each, each watch living in a separate fo'castle. 
 The port watch is commanded by the mate, and 
 the starboard by the second mate. Between these 
 two watches the time is divided into alternate 
 stretches of four hours on duty and "below." If, 
 
HIS VOYAGE AROUND CAPE HORN. 
 
 for instance, the port watch has the deck in the 
 first night-watch, from eight to twelve, at the end 
 of the four hours they go below, and the star- 
 board watch come on duty. They hold the deck 
 till 4 A.M., when the port again turn out, and so it 
 goes from day to day, and week to week, all the 
 way to California, thus making it impossible to 
 get more than three and a half hours' sleep at one 
 time. In order to shift the hours each night the 
 watch from 4 P.M. to 8 P.M. is split into two parts 
 of two hours each, called the first and second dog- 
 watches ; by means of these the officer who has 
 the middle watch (or from 12 to 4 A.M.) one night 
 will be below those hours the next. The watches 
 have their meals as follows : at 5 A.M. the watch 
 on deck have hot coffee, and their breakfast at 8 
 A.M., when they go below. The watch that turn 
 out at that hour (8 A.M.) get theirs at 7.30, dinner 
 at 11.30 and 12, tea at 5 and 6 P.M. It is a pop- 
 ular mistake that sailors lead an idle life at sea. 
 When on duty they are never unemployed for a 
 moment, and are even forbidden to talk together. 
 It is said that " a ship, like a lady's watch, is always 
 in need of repairs," and that just about strikes it. 
 To make these repairs the watch on duty are 
 scattered all over the ship, high and low, fore and 
 aft, with supplies of yarn and wire, fixing battens 
 on and mending chafing-gear. Some are painting 
 the iron-work, and others spinning "spun yarn," 
 
,5 A LANDLUBBER'S LOG OF 
 
 so that the vessel always looks as busy as a bee- 
 hive. Some of the work they do, such as splicing 
 ropes and plaiting sennit and mats, is very inter- 
 esting. Each man has his regular "trick" or turn 
 at the wheel in two-hour stretches, also on the 
 lookout at night, which is set at sundown. When 
 pulling on the ropes one man always sings out 
 just before the tug, thus insuring a uniform pull. 
 Each chap has his own peculiar cry or exclama- 
 tion for such times, and when there are three or 
 four such parties making sail in different parts of 
 the ship the assortment of yells and grunts is 
 very comical. The effect at such a time from in- 
 side the cabin would lead any one to suspect that 
 a pitched battle was going on overhead, did they 
 not know the cause of the rumpus. One fellow 
 always yells, " Pull for a breeze now !" no matter 
 whether it is dead calm or the ship making twelve 
 knots. Another's favorite remark is, " Now, jam 
 her down!" Another's, " Ahyoualtogethernow- 
 boys !" but the majority use an indiscriminate 
 mass of ohs and ahs, and groans and grunts, 
 which go to make a semi-dismal noise, which at 
 night has a queer effect. Saturday nights the 
 " slop-chest," or store-room, is opened, and the 
 men buy what clothes, boots, tobacco, etc., they 
 may want, paying very high prices, and having 
 the amount charged against their wages at the 
 end of the voyage. (They get on this voyage 
 
HIS VOYAGE AROUND CAPE HORN. 47 
 
 fifteen dollars per month.) On Sundays no labor 
 is done, except what is needed to work the ship, 
 and the men sit about smoking, reading, and 
 mending their clothes. Here, in fine-weather re- 
 gions, the men have a comparatively easy time of 
 it, although the officers order them about like so 
 many dogs, and the hardships of the voyage are 
 still to come. 
 
 There are some great names among the crew, 
 a Byron, a Scott, a Nelson, and the ship's boy 
 boasts the proud title of Washington. He is 
 about seventeen, and is in the mate's watch, where 
 his principal duty consists of small jobs like plait- 
 ing short yarns and picking over the potatoes for 
 bad ones. This ends the crew, and brings me to 
 the passengers. 
 
 As etiquette rules that age shall always precede 
 
 beauty, I first describe the way Mr. X , my 
 
 fellow-passenger, passes the time. I have not as 
 yet said anything about him in this journal, be- 
 cause I wanted to know him better before jotting 
 down my opinion. 
 
 A month, however, has passed since first we 
 met, and has been enough to familiarize me with 
 
 his habits. Mr. X is tall, with light hair and 
 
 moustache, and is on the whole rather good look- 
 ing. He is going to California to take up business 
 there, and having lots of time, adopted this way 
 of getting there. It certainly was from no love 
 
48 A LANDLUBBER'S LOG OF 
 
 of the sea that he made the passage, as he takes 
 no interest whatever in anything about the ship, 
 very seldom goes aloft, and never talks on any 
 subject connected with the vessel. His three 
 great amusements are sleeping, reading the "New 
 York Weekly" (of which paper he has several 
 hundred copies at least), and singing or humming 
 sentimental songs of the " Molly Darling" and 
 " See that my Grave 's kept Green" order. He 
 is quite unable to take any joking, and often has 
 little " tiffs" with the captain and mate, the latter 
 loving to tease him. However, we get along to- 
 gether without a jar, and are always very friendly. 
 To me time passes very quickly, and the days 
 flash past like magic ; from morning till night I 
 am climbing about in the rigging, and can travel 
 up and down the mast like smoke. I have pretty 
 well mastered the names of all ropes and spars, 
 and can prattle ship beautifully. The charts are 
 very interesting to me, and I am always about 
 when they are being overhauled and brought up 
 to date. Then I spend an hour or two every day 
 in the carpenter-shop whittling and talking, and 
 have so far done but little reading, really not find- 
 ing time to spare for it. I can imagine nothing 
 more bracing or health-giving than a voyage like 
 this, and with a party of one's friends it would be 
 perfection. I enjoy every minute of the day, and 
 sleep like a top at night, retiring at the very re- 
 
HIS VOYAGE AROUND CAPE HORN. 
 
 49 
 
 spectable hour of 9.30 P.M. Often in the evening 
 we have music served up by the captain's hand- 
 some eight-tune box ; we are also provided with 
 musical instruments, in the shape of the second 
 mate's before-mentioned two-stringed violin, and 
 a mouth-organ run to seed, the property of the 
 captain. My fellow-passenger's rendering of "Sil- 
 ver Threads among the Gold" on the latter in- 
 strument is calculated to thrill an anchorite. Two 
 canary-birds also contribute their voices to the 
 musical department, and the cat and kitten often 
 give short evening concerts on the main deck. 
 To swing in the hammock is another of the simple 
 and innocent amusements of the passengers, and 
 on these perfect moonlight evenings here in the 
 tropics it would be delightful to sleep in one on 
 deck were it not for the heavy dew that falls after 
 sunset. I had thought I would greatly miss the 
 newspapers, but I never give them a thought ; 
 the feeling that it is of no. use wishing for them 
 goes a great way towards making one resigned 
 to doing without. 
 
A LANDLUBBER'S LOG OF 
 
 Table for week ending Attgust 17. 
 
 August ii. Lat. 12 42' S. Run 181 miles. 
 
 Lon. 33 48' W. Temp, at noon, 81. 
 
 Weather beautiful. Sea very smooth. 
 
 August 12. Lat. 14 38' S. Run 118 miles. 
 
 Lon. 33 51' W. Temp, at noon, 84. 
 
 Weather beautiful. Sea smooth. Light airs all day. 
 
 August 13. Lat. 15 52' S. Run 79 miles. 
 
 Lon. 34 28' W. Temp, at noon, 80. 
 
 Weather very fine. Sea still smooth. Short calms during the day. 
 
 August 14. Lat. 17 55' S. Run 146 miles. 
 
 Lon. 35 52' W. Temp, at noon, 76. 
 
 Weather beautiful. Sounded on S.E. end of Hotspur Bank at P.M. : 
 thirty-one fathoms, coral and shell bottom. 
 
 August 15. Lat. 20 19' S. Run 199 miles. 
 
 Lon. 38 05 / W. Temp, at noon, 74. 
 
 Weather fine. Dry squalls and stiff' breezes. Slight shower at 9 A.M. 
 Sea very rough. Ship pitching badly. 
 
 August 1 6. Lat. 23 19' S. Run 203 miles. 
 
 Lon. 40 oo' W. Temp, at noon, 72. 
 
 Squally all night. Thick and misty all day. 
 
 August 17. Lat. 25 46' S. Run 181 miles. 
 
 Lon. 45 53 X W. Temp, at n x/n, 72. 
 
 Weather beautiful. Shower in afternoon. 
 
HIS VOYAGE AROUND CAPE HORN. 
 
 y. 
 
 AT SEA, SUNDAY, August 17. 
 
 ANOTHER, and the sixth continuous week of de- 
 lightful weather. The evenings are, however, not 
 quite so pleasant as heretofore on account of the 
 very heavy dew, that wets everything as though a 
 shower had fallen, but, being very salt, is not likely 
 to give one cold. The week would have been 
 without incident but for one occurrence, which 
 was, however, of enough importance to interest 
 us for several days. This was our overtaking the 
 " Joseph S. Spinney" (the rival ship I mentioned 
 Sunday, August 3), which we consider quite a 
 feather in our good ship's cap. 
 
 August ii. At 7 A.M. a sail was reported 
 ahead, visible from the foretop-gallant yard. By 
 noon it could be seen from the lower topsail yard, 
 and through the glass was made out to be a large 
 ship bound the same way as ourselves. This 
 news set the captain looking over the list of ships 
 bound for San Francisco, and he at length de- 
 clared it must be either the "Spinney" or the "H. 
 S. Gregory," another large ship that sailed from 
 New York a week or ten days before we passed 
 out of the Capes. So sure was he that he was 
 right that he offered to bet five dollars to one 
 
A LANDLUBBER'S LOG OF 
 
 that it would prove one vessel or the other. 1 
 took the odds. 
 
 August 12. At daylight the stranger was in 
 sight from deck, hull down, and all that day we 
 slowly overtook her, spreading everything that 
 would draw, and keeping the men busy from day- 
 light to dark bracing and squaring the yards as the 
 breeze hauled one way or the other. At sunset 
 our rival was about six miles ahead over the lee 
 bow. 
 
 August 13. At sunrise she lay in the same 
 position, only some three miles ahead. At eight 
 bells she hoisted her signals, which, to Captain 
 C 's great delight, proved her to be the "Spin- 
 ney." We then ran ours up, to which she replied 
 by saying, " Come alongside." This we took to 
 be a bit of sarcasm ; but she was in earnest, and, 
 backing her main yard, came to a stop. As we 
 drew rapidly up she signalled that she would send 
 a boat for our captain to come on board in. Cap- 
 tain hoisted, " Shall I bring passengers ?" to which 
 
 the "Spinney" replied, "Yes;" but Mr. X 
 
 declined to accompany us. By this time we were 
 within half a mile of the " Spinney," and had met 
 the boat, which was towing alongside. It was 
 leaking badly, and one man had to keep bailing- 
 while three others pulled, this was about half- 
 past 10 A.M. After much trouble we got into the 
 gig, and towed along with the ship until we were 
 
HIS VOYAGE AROUND CAPE HORN. 
 
 abreast of the " Spinney," some five hundred 
 yards to leeward, when we cast off, drifted astern, 
 and pulled for the other ship. From the deck it 
 had looked very smooth, but the contrast between 
 the ship and the little cockle-shell we were in was 
 so great that the long swells seemed like young 
 mountains as we rose to their tops or sank into 
 the trough. From the gig the view of the two 
 ships, both with all sails set, was extremely beau- 
 tiful. Five minutes or so and the boat reached the 
 " Spinney," bringing up under her lee-quarter. I 
 scrambled on board by way of the channels and 
 shrouds, and the captain climbed up the ladder. 
 We were welcomed by Captain Jordan and his 
 family, which consisted of his wife, three daughters, 
 aged about nineteen, twelve, and five, and his son, 
 seventeen years old. After being introduced all 
 round, I went all over the ship under the guidance 
 of young lady No. i. She was a beautiful vessel, 
 and being some eight or nine hundred tons larger, 
 made the " Pactolus" seem quite small. 
 
 On deck there were a number of chickens strut- 
 ting about, all blind of one eye, and a cute little 
 pig lay coiled up in a sunny corner fast asleep. 
 The young lady, whose name was Carrie, was 
 very pretty and polite, and sang for me that beau- 
 tiful vocal gem, "See that my Grave's kept Green," 
 in so sweet and touching a manner that I felt 
 quite sorry that Mr. X had not come with us, 
 
54 
 
 A LANDLUBBER'S LOG OF 
 
 that song being one of his star performances. 
 The little girl also favored the company with 
 music, the instrument both used being a small 
 parlor organ. After the concert we discussed 
 " Pinafore" and ate raisins, while the two skippers 
 talked " passage" and compared notes. At three 
 o'clock we sat down to a very nice dinner of clam- 
 chowder, lobster-salad, corn, peas, and potatoes, 
 with rice-pudding and cake for dessert, also sev- 
 eral bottles of lager beer, which was prime. Din- 
 ner being over, young Jordan took me in charge, 
 and showed me the fo'castle and carpenter-shop, 
 where he had a jig-saw. As a proof of his skill 
 on that tool he made me a paper-cutter, which 
 Miss Carrie decorated with a chromo. But the 
 most wonderful thing about the ship was the 
 assortment of cats they had on board. There were 
 actually twenty-eight live felines of every color 
 and size, from a jet-black Tom as big as a cat 
 can grow to a little white kitten with its eyes 
 still shut, the sole survivor of a recent lot, its 
 brothers and sisters having been tossed over- 
 board. Most of these cats were kept down be- 
 tween decks, and lived on rats, of which there 
 were great numbers. This, in fact, was the reason 
 for keeping so many, and it was an experiment of 
 the captain's, the rodents having heretofore dam- 
 aged a great deal of cargo. Miss Jordan told me 
 that often at nights the cats made a terrible racket, 
 
VOYAGE AROUND CAPE HORN. 5- 
 
 which is easily to be believed. At 4.30 P.M. we 
 signalled the " Pactolus" to back her main yard 
 and wait for us, she being then some two miles 
 ahead, and at five o'clock, after bidding all good- 
 by, and wishing them a pleasant voyage, the cap- 
 tain and I went over the side into the gig again. 
 Going back it did not leak, having been taken on 
 board and recalked while we were paying our 
 call. We had some trouble getting on board the 
 " Pactolus," and only did so after getting well wet 
 with the splashing waves. I sent Miss J. several 
 novels in charge of the boatswain ; the two ships 
 then each dipped the American flag three times 
 and stood away again. The " Pactolus" being- 
 able to sail much nearer the wind than the "Spin- 
 ney," we soon drew ahead and to windward, sun- 
 set seeing the " Spinney" four miles astern over 
 the lee quarter. 
 
 August 14. At sunrise our rival bore N. by 
 W. eight miles, and at sunset N. by W. fifteen 
 miles. At i P.M. we sounded on the eastern edo^e 
 
 o 
 
 of Hotspur Bank, a large sunken coral reef from 
 twenty-five to seventy fathoms under water, and 
 fourteen by ten miles in extent. Our line ran out 
 thirty-one fathoms, and the lead, which had some 
 soap stuck to its bottom for the purpose, brought 
 up a few bits of coral and shells and a blade or 
 two of sea-grass. 
 
 The fishing on this bank is very fine, great 
 
56 A LANDLUBBER'S LOG OF 
 
 numbers of a species of cod frequenting it, but we 
 were going too rapidly to attempt capturing any. 
 August 15 and 16. Shifted our old sails for 
 new and stronger ones, a ship, queer as it 
 sounds, wearing her best clothes in the worst 
 weather. As they are taken down the old sails 
 are brought on the roof of the after-house and 
 thoroughly overhauled and mended before being 
 put away in the sail-locker, from whence they will 
 be pulled out to be again bent on when we strike 
 the fine weather the other side of Cape Horn. 
 Two sail-makers are generally employed at this 
 job of patching and repairing sails. They are 
 members of the crew, one being- chosen from each 
 
 1 o 
 
 watch, and while thus employed work all day and 
 sleep all night, instead of turning in and out with 
 their respective watches. 
 
 August 1 7. This evening a very large flying- 
 fish flew on board, striking the house at the miz- 
 zen shrouds. It measured over thirteen inches 
 in length, and its wings had a spread of fifteen 
 inches, I have put them in a book to press. 
 
 Through the influence of various sea stories I 
 have read, my idea of a ship's bill of fare was salt 
 beef, salt pork, onions, and hard bread full of 
 weevils. Like many other of my landlubber no- 
 tions, this has been dispelled, and none more 
 pleasantly. In the fo'castle, it is true, salt beef 
 and pork are very extensively eaten, but in the 
 
HIS VOYAGE AROUND CAPE HORN. 57 
 
 cabin, if one does not like those delicacies he need 
 not touch them, and still not suffer from hunger 
 or want of variety. Our hours for meals are: 
 breakfast, seven bells (7.30 A.M.) ; dinner, a little, 
 after, eight bells (12 M.), and tea at three bells 
 (5.30 P.M.). They are served in the forward cabin, 
 the table seating four, and having in its centre a 
 patent swinging-table that prevents what is placed 
 on it from upsetting. The captain and I sit on 
 
 the starboard side, Mr. X and the mate on 
 
 the port. For breakfast we always have coffee, 
 hot biscuit, and a dish of oatmeal, cornmeal, or 
 cracked hominy, eaten with molasses or honey, 
 and some hot relishes, such as salt fish, ham, 
 corned beef-hash, etc., with boiled potatoes. Each 
 day has its regular dinner. Monday, pea-soup, 
 corned beef, potatoes, dried peas boiled soft. 
 Tuesday and Friday a Yankee menu, bean-soup, 
 pork and beans, potatoes, and hot Boston brown 
 bread. Wednesday, clam-chowder, boiled rice, 
 and some canned meat with curry dressing, rice- 
 pudding for dessert. Thursday, beef-soup, canned 
 roast beef, potatoes, and canned peas or beans, 
 plum-duff (which may be pronounced plum tough), 
 served with butter and sugar sauce. Saturday, 
 codfish, potatoes, canned tomatoes. Sunday, va- 
 rious kinds of soups are chosen from, also a 
 weekly change in the selection of meat and pota- 
 toes, corn and macaroni, plum-duff for dessert. 
 
58 A LANDLUBBER'S LOG OF 
 
 Duff is a kind of bread sweetened, stuck full of 
 raisins, and cooked in a mould. It is served hot, 
 and is highly indigestible. I eat the sauce, which 
 the steward makes very well, on bread instead of 
 the duff. On the days that I have put down no 
 dessert we generally have pie, corn-starch some- 
 times turning up for a change. Tea is my favorite 
 meal ; it is made up of tea, toast, baked or fried 
 potatoes, and one of the following relishes : her- 
 ring, sardines, canned corn-beef, or potted ham ; 
 also, some kind of stewed dried fruit, and cake or 
 doughnuts. Our butter is excellent, the only 
 drawback being its softness. The water, although 
 in these regions a trifle warm, is clear and good. 
 Besides what I have mentioned, there is generally 
 a plate of cold salt beef and pork, cut in thin 
 slices, on the table for those who wish it. Once 
 in a while I take a slice of the beef, but don't in- 
 tend to even nibble the pork. After tea a plate 
 of this meat and some bread is put on the table 
 for the officers of the night-watches should they 
 feel hungry. On ship, as on shore, Saturday is 
 marketing day, and that afternoon the steward 
 comes to the captain for the week's supply of 
 canned goods, coffee, tea, etc. These are kept in 
 a big locker under the poop-deck, and I often 
 creep in with the steward, and together we hatch 
 up little plots concerning the Sunday dinners. 
 The steward does all the baking, and is quite a 
 
HIS VOYAGE AROUND CAPE HORN. 
 
 59 
 
 dabster at it. His biscuit, bread, cake, and pie- 
 crust are all excellent, and his doughnuts first- 
 class. Everything else is prepared by the cook, 
 who serves things smoking hot and perfectly 
 clean, which is not the way with all ship's cooks. 
 The Celestials are a queer couple, and it is very 
 amusing to hear them chattering together. The 
 cook is a great singer, and warbles away over his 
 work like a bird, only he never changes the tune, 
 which isn't particularly captivating. Both can talk 
 some little English, the steward being the most 
 easily understood. The cook is a little bit of a 
 chap, fifty years old, is minus his cue, and wears 
 his straight black hair banged all around. His 
 parchment-like skin is drawn over his wizened 
 little face as tight as a drum-head, and his black 
 eyes twinkle like diamonds. Sometimes he comes 
 into the carpenter-shop in the evenings and writes 
 all over the bench in Chinese characters, which 
 he tries to explain to us in pigeon-English, always 
 ending up with, "You savvy?" He is very fond 
 of the cats, which, under his patronage, have 
 grown so fat that they can hardly waddle about. 
 They understand Chinese enough to always run 
 when he calls out some unintelligible gibberish, 
 which I suppose means " Come to dinner, pussies." 
 Chin Lee, the steward, is about thirty-five years 
 old, and has thick black hair, which he wears 
 " Melican style ;" his skin is of a lighter shade 
 
60 A LANDLUBBER'S LOG OF 
 
 than the cook's. He has control of the pantry, 
 waits on table, keeps the cabin in order, makes 
 the beds, does the washing for captain and pas- 
 sengers, and takes care of the birds. He is very 
 neat, and keeps the cabins spotlessly clean, seem- 
 ing to take great pride in doing so. He is never 
 idle, and appears to thoroughly enjoy hard work. 
 As I said before, he is learning to read and write, 
 and is very proud of the fact ; still, he has no idea 
 of the sound of a word from its appearance, and 
 only knows what is in the different cans and jars 
 by experience and the pictures on the outside. 
 The other day he came to me with a tin of ground 
 ginger, and said, " G-i-n-g-e-r, mustard ?" I told 
 him no, that didn't spell mustard, and then wrote 
 out the latter word on a slip of paper, by which 
 means he found what he wanted. He and the cook 
 are very handy and ingenious, turning the old tin 
 cans into cups and platters, and this week I saw the 
 latter make a first-rate rolling-pin out of a bit of 
 kindling wood. Sometimes they cook themselves 
 a bowl of rice, and eat it with chop-sticks, chatter- 
 ing all the while in their own hopelessly unintelli- 
 gible jargon. These two worthies are both mar- 
 ried men, the difference being that the steward 
 spends most of his pay for rum, while Mr. Cook, 
 like a dutiful husband, sends most of his wages 
 to Mrs. Cook, who is one of the few Chinese 
 women who live in New York. 
 
HIS VOYAGE AROUND CAPE HORN. ft l 
 
 In the fo'castle the bill of fare of course differs 
 from that in the cabin. Salt beef and pork, hard 
 bread and soft bread, potatoes, and coffee go to 
 make it up. Tuesday and Friday they also have 
 boiled beans, and Thursday and Sunday a coarse 
 kind of duff, which is eaten with molasses. This 
 latter dish is considered the treat of the week, 
 and the two days on which it is served are known 
 to the sailors as " duff day," and following- the 
 same rule, instead of speaking of Tuesday or Fri- 
 day, they say " bean day." Their food is served 
 in large pans, which one of the watch comes to 
 the galley after, and it is eaten in the fo'castle, 
 where each man has his knife, spoon, and plate, 
 together with a tin cup for water or coffee. These 
 they keep clean themselves. The salt meats are 
 kept in a large barrel, called the harness cask, 
 which is kept on deck at the side of the forward- 
 house, and lashed down. The codfish is stored 
 in a chest lashed in the mizzentop, which, like 
 the main- and foretops, is in the " Pactolus" very 
 large and roomy, and is kept there so as to 
 keep it thoroughly aired. It is the boy's work 
 to open this chest every Friday morning and 
 get out the fish for the next day's use. One of 
 the, to me, strange dishes we have in the cabin 
 is called " tongues and sounds," being the tongues 
 and part of the stomachs of the codfish put up 
 in pickle. It tastes like very strong stewed clams. 
 
62 A LANDLUBBER'S LOG OF 
 
 One trifling drawback to the pleasures of the 
 table is the generous quantity of diminutive 
 roaches which manage to come to an untimely 
 end in the various dishes during their prepara- 
 tion. At first this feature of our repast was a 
 source of considerable annoyance to me, but 
 after wasting a good deal of time in vain efforts 
 to find all the defunct intruders in my food, I 
 gave up hunting for them, and now only re- 
 move them when they appear without being 
 looked for. They swarm in the galley or kitchen, 
 although the cook keeps it scrupulously clean, and 
 the cats are forever catching and devouring them, 
 yet the supply is always at flood-tide, and the cap- 
 tain says such is the case on almost every vessel 
 afloat. 
 
HIS VOYAGE AROUND CAPE HORN. 
 
 Table for week ending August 24. 
 
 August 18. Lat. 28 41' S. Run 255 miles. 
 
 Lon. 45 53' W. Temp, at noon, 72. 
 
 Stiff breezes. Fine day's work. Clear, but damp and disagreeable. 
 
 August 19. Lat. 30 35' S. Run 145 miles. 
 
 Lon. 47 38' W. Temp, at noon, 69. 
 
 Gloomy and damp. Veiy rough sea. Brilliant phosphorescent display 
 in the evening. 
 
 August 20. Lat. 33 42' S. Run 242 miles. 
 
 Lon. 50 38' W. Temp, at noon, 63. 
 
 Wet and chilly. Sea much lower. Several violent squalls day and 
 night. 
 
 August 21. Lat. 35 43' S. Run 134 miles. 
 
 Lon. 52 21' W. Temp, at noon, 72. 
 
 Warm and pleasant till 2 P.M. Afternoon colder and damp. Fierce 
 squalls and calms all night, with terrible thunder and lightning. 
 
 August 22. Lat. 37 15' S. Run 126 miles. 
 
 Lon. 53 56' W. Temp, at noon, 52. 
 
 Strong gale from 4 to 8 A.M. Cold rain all day till four o'clock, when 
 it cleared. Magnificent scarlet sunset. 
 
 August 23. Lat. 39 46' S. Run 165 miles. 
 
 Lon. 54 56' W. Temp, at noon, 42. 
 
 Cold and raw. Strong winds. Very rough sea, washing inboard. 
 
 August 24. Lat. 41 I2 r S. Run 126 miles. 
 
 Lon. 56 01 ' W. Temp, at noon, 42. 
 
 Quite cold. Clear and foggy by turns. Thunder, lightning, and calms 
 in afternoon. 
 
64 A LANDLUBBER'S LOG OF 
 
 "VI. 
 
 AT SEA, SUNDAY, August 24 
 
 EXIT fine weather, enter assorted bad. What 
 a contrast to former tables is that for the past 
 week! I suppose the phrase "very fine" I have 
 so constantly used hitherto in reference to the 
 weather must at last be shelved, and the less 
 pleasant ones used in the preceding table reign 
 in its stead for a month to come. Well, we can- 
 not complain. For forty days we have enjoyed 
 an uninterrupted run of beautiful weather, not a 
 single evening of the six weeks being spent in 
 the cabin ; in fact, I had almost forgotten that 
 there were such drawbacks to a sea-voyage as 
 storms, and had begun to think the stories of 
 gales, deafening thunder-squalls, and other terrors 
 of wind and weather mere romancing. Since last 
 
 o 
 
 Monday, however, I've seen enough to convince 
 me of their truthfulness, therefore it is not par- 
 ticularly cheering to hear that I may expect much 
 worse from here all the way round the Cape, but 
 without the thunder and lightning accompaniment, 
 for which thank heaven. The week has been full 
 of incident, as its record will show. 
 
 August 18. While ploughing along through 
 a heavy head sea we passed close to a small 
 schooner of about one hundred or two hundred 
 
HIS VOYAGE AROUND CAPE HORN. 
 
 tons. This little craft was bound from Havre to 
 the river Platte, and was the "John N. Colby," of 
 Stonington, Connecticut, a real specimen of Yan- 
 kee grit, grit it was to come down here in her, 
 for although a fine day, and to us only a good 
 breeze, the schooner was pitching like a cork 
 under shortened sail, and almost every wave 
 splashed over her rail. 
 
 August 19. During breakfast a commotion 
 was heard on deck, and on going out the second 
 mate reported having seen a drifting wreck 
 through a rift in the fog, which was hanging in a 
 thick bank right across our course. I went for- 
 ward on the jib-boom with a pair of glasses, but 
 could see nothing through the mist. Just as a 
 lookout was starting to go aloft the fog cleared 
 away, an-d about half a mile ahead, almost in our 
 track, lay the wreck. Altering our course a point 
 we stood for her, and backing the main yard as 
 we came up, stopped within one hundred feet of 
 her. She was the Swedish brig " Oscar II.," of 
 about four hundred tons, and her captain, the beau 
 ideal of a weather-beaten old sea-dog, told us in 
 broken English she had been totally dismasted in 
 a pampero off the Rio Grande de Sul, a small 
 river leading to a town of the same name, which 
 is situated on the southern extremity of the Bra- 
 zilian coast. The pamperos are very violent 
 squalls that come rushing out of the rivers along 
 
 e 6* 
 
66 A LANDLUBBER'S LOG OF 
 
 these coasts, with little or no warning, and are 
 much dreaded by sailors. 
 
 On the brig everything was in disorder, the 
 decks being heaped with tangled rigging and 
 broken spars. All her boats, except a small gig, 
 were stove in and useless, Two low jury-masts, 
 one about twenty feet high the other only ten, on 
 each of which was spread an old sail, had been 
 rigged up, and under this sorry display of canvas 
 the hulk was making for Rio Janeiro, there to 
 refit. We offered the captain new spars, or any 
 other help he might want, but he thanked us and 
 declined, saying that as the wind was fair he 
 hoped to make port in a few days. Wishing him 
 a safe journey, a courtesy he returned, we squared 
 away, and soon the "Oscar II." was out of sight 
 astern. She was then over four hundred miles 
 from Rio, and should she have any but fair winds 
 and weather it will go hard with her. This event 
 made a great stir among the crew, who thronged 
 up into the rigging so as to get a better look. 
 Wednesday was damp and gloomy ; we were on 
 soundings, and the sea had lost its blue color, being 
 of a dirty-green shade, caused by the shoal water, 
 and also the effects of the outflowing current from 
 the great river Platte, which at its mouth is over 
 a hundred miles wide. Here the winds surge in 
 and out as from a pair of huge bellows, making 
 the neighborhood most dangerous for vessels of 
 
HIS VOYAGE AROUND CAPE HORN. 67 
 
 all kinds. It is the headquarters of the pam- 
 peros. 
 
 The Rio de la Plata, to give the " Platte" its full 
 and correct name, is the second river of South 
 America, and is translated " River of Silver." Dur- 
 ing the day we were for the first time surrounded 
 by a number of Cape pigeons, beautiful birds with 
 white bodies, black heads, and mottled wings. 
 They are just the size of an ordinary pigeon (but 
 are not of that species, being so called from their 
 resemblance), and have the most graceful flight of 
 any bird I ever saw, never seeming to flap their 
 wings, but floating up and down on the breeze as 
 they sweep in graceful curves all about the ship, 
 especially in the wake ; they often settle in the 
 water, where they look like little ducks. In the 
 evening the phosphorescent display was beautiful 
 beyond description. The sky was as black as the 
 ace of spades, being completely overcast, and a 
 rough cross-sea was breaking on our quarter. As 
 the ship plunged along at the rate of ten knots 
 before a stiff breeze from the northeast, throwing 
 the waves aside from her bows, the foam came 
 floating astern on either side in great patches, 
 which glimmered like pale-green fire. On the 
 weather-quarter, every few minutes a great sea 
 would rise in a cone, hissing and sparkling above 
 the level of the rail, as though to sweep in and 
 swamp us, and then fall back into the trough 
 
68 A LANDLUBBER'S LOG OF 
 
 broken into a mass of seething foam, and literally 
 blazing with the phosphorescent flame. Far and 
 near the surface of the ocean was glistening, as 
 the waves curled and broke, or meeting together 
 threw the bright spray up against the gloomy 
 background of the sky. In our wake the water, 
 churned to a depth of twenty feet, gleamed in a 
 broad dim line for several hundred yards, and, 
 to add to the beauty of the scene, a school of por- 
 poises played about the ship, looking like meteors 
 as they swiftly scudded about some fathoms be- 
 neath the surface. Towards eleven o'clock the 
 sea gradually lost its extra brilliancy, and soon 
 the usual whitish foam sprinkled with bright sparks 
 was all that remained of this wonderful display of 
 submarine fireworks. 
 
 August 21. This morning, unlike the early 
 part of the week, was warm and sultry, the sun 
 coming up clear ; at nine o'clock the breeze died 
 away, leaving us becalmed, in which condition we 
 lay until 1.30. I took this opportunity, and man- 
 aged to get up on the main royal yard, the high- 
 est possible perch on board. In descending 1 
 slid down the port royal backstay to the topmast 
 cross-trees, then down the top-gallant backstay to 
 the level of the top ; here I swung out my legs 
 over the weather cross-jack brace, and pulled it 
 towards me until I could catch it with both hands; 
 by means of this I went hand over hand to the 
 
ff/S VOYAGE AROUND CAPE HORN. 
 
 6 9 
 
 cross-jack, pulled myself up on it, and went into 
 the mizzen-mast just under the top ; from here I 
 reached deck by sliding down the lower mizzen 
 topsail-sheets, thus reaching- deck from the mast- 
 head without touching the shrouds, as the rope- 
 ladders are called. 
 
 During the forenoon a bottle drifted past us, 
 tightly sealed and covered with barnacles ; it had 
 probably been thrown from some vessel a long 
 time back. To mv intense disgust it was out of 
 
 o 
 
 reach, and I saw it disappear astern without hav- 
 ing the pleasure of solving the mystery of its 
 contents. We also saw the carcass of a whale, 
 from which the blubber had been cut. Both the 
 captain and the mate said they were distrustful 
 of the calm and sudden rise of temperature, the 
 latter telling me it was a regular " weather- 
 breeder," and it needed but a few hours to 
 prove the truth of his words. About two o'clock 
 the oppressive heat, suddenly, and without warn- 
 ing, gave way to a damp, chilly atmosphere, which 
 was very penetrating and disagreeable, and soon 
 made it too unpleasant to stay on deck in warm- 
 weather togs. This chilliness grew more decided 
 as the afternoon wore on, and towards evening 
 low mutterings of thunder rumbled up from the 
 southwest, where a bank of black clouds, compact 
 and ugly, were gradually heaving up out of the 
 sky-line. The sun went down an angry globe of 
 
A LANDLUBBER'S LOG OF 
 
 crimson flame, and almost before its upper limb 
 had sunk, the damp, murky air had smothered the 
 glory of the after-glow, which, during the short 
 time it lasted, presented a most billious spectacle. 
 At four bells (6 P.M.), the gloom having greatly 
 increased, there came on a cold, drizzling rain, and 
 at the same hour several flashes of chain-light- 
 ning zigzagged a warning across the southwestern 
 sky, in the direction of the river's mouth, followed 
 by a low growl of thunder that, distant as it was, 
 seemed to make the ocean tremble. As night 
 came on, it grew blacker than pitch ; and an occa- 
 sional cat's-paw of warm wind came puffing up 
 from the same direction. Aloft the canvas was 
 thoroughly snugged, the running-gear was over- 
 hauled and made ship-shape, the decks cleared of 
 all unnecessary stuff, and then in the inky dark- 
 ness, heavily rolling on the oil-like swells, we 
 awaited, without any very apparent symptoms of 
 pleasure, the opening of the performance to which 
 nature was then giving us the overture. At eight 
 bells it again fell dead calm, and the drizzle 
 stopped for an hour, while the thunder once more 
 began its growling afar off, with the same sup- 
 pressed power noticed before. The captain say- 
 ing that we were " in for the devil of a kick up, 
 and no mistake," and that all hands would prob- 
 ably be on deck all night, I made up my mind 
 not to turn in as usual, but to stay with the skip- 
 
HIS VOYAGE AROUND CAPE HORN. J L 
 
 per and see the show. Mr. X cast his vote 
 
 the other way, and vanished below. Shortly after 
 nine o'clock the rain commenced sprinkling again, 
 but with no renewal of the gusts, and, going be- 
 low, I rigged myself out from top to toe in oil- 
 skins and rubber. By ten the drizzle had increased 
 to a pelting torrent of rain, the air was still and 
 very cold, and the lightning resumed operations 
 at short intervals, much closer than before, while 
 the muttering and groaning of the thunder had 
 swelled into very discouraging booms. Then 
 down through the drenching blackness, from each 
 royal mast-head and yard-arm tip, there slowly 
 gleamed out a dim glare of pale- blue fire, which 
 flickered in the most ghostly way, now going 
 out, now reappearing, sometimes as a ball and 
 then as a plume, but always looking spectral and 
 unreal. These phantom visitors, which added 
 considerable weight to the already appalling 
 gloom of the situation, are called, to quote the 
 captain, composants, and were caused by an ex- 
 cess of electricity in the atmosphere. I recollect 
 having seen a picture of a ship thus decorated, in 
 which they were called St. Elmo's fire. 
 
 Towards eleven o'clock the steady down-pour 
 eased off a bit, but a sharp squall from the south- 
 west came breezing along bringing it on again, 
 and then with a rush came the storm. Every 
 moment the thunder and lightning increased in 
 
A LANDLUBBER'S LOG OF 
 
 power, until at last it seemed as if the arch-fiend 
 himself, backed by a legion of lesser Beelzebubs, 
 was overseeing the hideous din. For six hours 
 the storm was terrific ; not so much in the matter 
 of wind, for at times it was calm ; nor in the sea 
 running, for that was but moderately rough, but 
 in the frightful vividness of the lightning and the 
 terrible crashing of the thunder. The bolts of 
 lightning fairly hissed as they forked around and 
 across the ship in blinding flashes of pink or blue 
 or white flame, dazzling one's eyes so that they 
 ached for hours afterwards. To attempt to de- 
 scribe the thunder would be folly ; almost con- 
 tinually for six hours it crashed about us, each 
 tremendous discharge making the ship tremble 
 and quiver to her keelson, and half stunning us 
 as we stood terror-stricken at the fury and power 
 of the storm. Never did I experience such fear, 
 and all hands, from the captain to the cook, ac- 
 knowledge the same feeling of terror. The storm 
 itself was terrifying enough, but when supple- 
 mented with the knowledge that the standing rig- 
 ging was a net-work of wire ropes and chains, and 
 that under our feet lay an immense mass of gun- 
 powder, our feelings may be better imagined than 
 described. That the ship was not struck seems 
 little less than a miracle, and I think what saved 
 her was the fact of the spars and rigging being so 
 heavily charged with electricity before the storm 
 
HIS VOYAGE AROUND CAPE HORN. 
 
 broke. During the first half of the storm the wind 
 would at times come rushing up from the south- 
 west, then drop away altogether, and in a few 
 minutes afterwards blow great guns from an en- 
 tirely different direction ; in fact, we had squalls 
 from nearly every point of the compass. It was 
 during the calm spells that came between these 
 squalls, and when the ship swung heavily from 
 side to side, that the storm seemed most terrible. 
 At 3 A.M. it settled into a steady blow from the 
 northwest, which rapidly stiffened into a gale, and 
 the ship was put under reefed topsails, reefed 
 mainsail and foresail ; at four o'clock the upper 
 topsails and mainsail were furled, and the foresail 
 reefed, and under this latter and reefed lower top- 
 sails we ran until 7 A.M. The crew were com- 
 pletely fagged out : twelve men being aloft nearly 
 two hours trying to furl the mainsail. At six 
 o'clock the wind in a great measure died away ; 
 the clouds began to scatter, and the thunder and 
 lightning rapidly drew away, passing out to sea- 
 ward of us ; at seven a cold drizzle set in, which 
 lasted all day. Both the captain and mate, who 
 have spent most of their lives at sea, say they 
 never went through so terrible a night before, and 
 both acknowledged that they thought themselves 
 booked for Davy Jones. 
 
 August 22. We were again surrounded by the 
 
 Cape pigeons. They are perfectly ravenous, and 
 D 7 
 
74 
 
 A LANDLUBBER'S LOG OF 
 
 will eat anything we throw overboard. Drop a 
 bit of pork fat or bread no larger than a cent, and 
 instantly they will have it. They come right up 
 under the rail in their hurry to grab the morsels. 
 They always have to settle before feeding, and it 
 is very curious to see one or more flying at full 
 speed, spy a bit of food, throw back their wings, 
 and drop beside it. Should it be sinking, they 
 dive after it. When several tackle the same piece 
 they fight and cackle at a great rate. The after- 
 noon being nearly calm I baited a small fish-hook 
 with pork, and scattered some small bits about in 
 the water. The pigeons promptly ate all the loose 
 bits, and then turned their attention to the piece 
 on the hook. A great many picked at it, but for an 
 hour I couldn't hook one. At last, however, one 
 unlucky chap got the barb fastened in his bill, and 
 was hauled on board struggling bravely. Being 
 unfit to eat I let it go again, after shutting it up 
 for a while in the cabin along with our youngest 
 cat. Puss has been almost crazy since the birds 
 came around, sitting up on the rail at the risk of 
 falling overboard, and following them in their 
 flight with her eyes for an hour at a time, and 
 occasionally uttering a dismal " meyow." She 
 also sharpened her claws very often, which led 
 us to think she would 'tackle a bird with great 
 vigor. But when pussy was brought face to face 
 with our pigeon she weakened. For a while she 
 
HIS VOYAGE AROUND CAPE HORN. 
 
 75 
 
 only sat and looked at it sitting on the floor, then 
 she went a little closer, when the bird hit her a 
 slap right across the face with its wing. That 
 finished the encounter, for the kitten retired under 
 the sofa, from which retreat she could not be 
 
 coaxed. Mr. X , by the way, slept calmly all 
 
 through last night's uproar, and was astonished 
 when he heard about it. He was likewise very 
 much tickled at having dodged the experience, 
 although, now that it is all over, I'm glad I was on 
 deck. The second mate acknowledged to me to- 
 day that the storm was " no slouch of a rumpus," 
 but proceeded to relate a yarn about another he 
 once witnessed, which, to quote him, " was as far 
 ahead of last night's as last night's was ahead of 
 a bunch of fire-crackers." It has to be a big 
 thing- that Mr. D can't see and ^0 several 
 
 o o 
 
 better. 
 
 August 24. To-day, for the first time, I saw an 
 albatross. They are very handsome birds, with 
 the same graceful flight as the pigeons, only 
 slower, and are much larger than I had thought, 
 some measuring twelve or fourteen feet across 
 the wings. 
 
7 6 
 
 A LANDLUBBER'S LOG OF 
 
 Table for week ending August 31. 
 
 August 25. Lat. 40 43' S. Run 57 miles. 
 
 Lon. 56 40' W. Temp, at noon, 49. 
 
 Warmer ; mostly calm. Very heavy fog in evening. 
 
 August 26. Lat. 41 44 X S. Run 146 miles. 
 
 Lon. 59 o6 x W. Temp, at noon, 49. 
 
 Fine all A.M. Strong squalls from 2 to 5 P.M., with thunder and light- 
 ning. Hail and snow squalls all night. Tremendous sea. 
 
 August 27. Lat. 44 13' S. Run 236 miles. 
 
 Lon. 62 45' W. Temp, at noon, 35. 
 
 Sea still very high. Moderate gale from N. W. Fine moonlight night. 
 
 August 28. Lat. 48 09' S. Run 237 miles. 
 
 Lon. 64 52' W. Temp, at noon, 31. 
 
 Gale from S. W. Hail and rain at intervals. 
 
 August 29. Lat. 50 14' S. Run 157 miles. 
 
 Lon. 65 21 ' W. Temp, at noon, 30. 
 
 Gale moderating. Very cold. 
 
 August 30. Lat. 52 59' S. Run 173 miles. 
 
 Lon. 64 19' W. Temp, at noon, 33. 
 
 Snow, hail, sleet, and rain. High head sea. 
 
 
 
 August 31. Lat. 53 39' S. Run 115 miles. 
 
 Lon. 64 07' W. Temp, at noon, 36. 
 
 Cold and fine. Superb sunset. Full moon. Sighted Staten Land at 
 1 1 P.M., twenty-eight miles ahead. 
 
HIS VOYAGE AROUND CAPE HORN. 
 
 77 
 
 AT SEA, SUNDAY, August 31. 
 
 weather down her 
 who 
 
 THE weather down here is like the little girl 
 
 o 
 
 " When she was good, was very, very good, 
 But when she was bad, she was horrid." 
 
 Monday and Tuesday mornings, last evening, and 
 all to-day belong to the first, and the rest of 
 the week to the second half of the couplet. We 
 have been running down along the coast of Pata- 
 gonia all the week, through the " roaring forties," 
 as these latitudes are called, keeping well in 
 towards the land, but not sighting it, except for a 
 short time Thursday afternoon, when it could just 
 be made out from aloft, about thirty miles on the 
 starboard beam, and having the appearance of a 
 low fog-bank. 
 
 August 25. At daylight we were within a mile 
 of a large skysail yard ship, which had appeared 
 on Sunday, the 24th instant, but I forgot to note it 
 down. She turned out to be the " St. John," one 
 of our owner's ships, and registers something over 
 two thousand tons. She was then seventy-one 
 days out from Liverpool, bound for Callao, Peru. 
 Her very long passage, she signalled, had been 
 caused by an awful dose of "doldrums" north of 
 
 7* 
 
A LANDLUBBER'S LOG OF 
 
 the line. What makes the meeting of the two 
 vessels curious is the fact that just about a year 
 ago both ships were down here, our captain 
 having charge of the " St. John," and her present 
 captain having command of the " Pactolus." Cap- 
 tain C had a hard time of it in the " St. John," 
 
 the voyage being a chapter of accidents from 
 start to finish. Besides having his first mate sick 
 in bed for ninety days, his other officers were 
 most inferior and unreliable. The steering-gear 
 broke down in the South Atlantic, and he had to 
 venture around the " Horn" with a patched-up 
 affair. He lost one man by sickness and one by 
 drowning, and to cap the climax, was run into at 
 i A.M. one dark morning off Cape Horn by an 
 iron bark. The ship was cut just forward of the 
 fore rigging, the bark's bows crushing in some 
 ten or twelve feet, but not cutting quite down to 
 the water-line. On the bark the damage was a 
 broken jib-boom and bowsprit and loss of the 
 foremast-stays. The captain says only the mild 
 state of the sea prevented both vessels from 
 going down. One of the bark's crew in attempt- 
 ing to scramble on board the " Pactolus," was 
 
 o 
 
 crushed between the two vessels and cut in half. 
 The ship was one hundred and forty-nine days in 
 reaching 'Frisco. During to-day, which has been 
 mostly calm, we saw a whale, a seal, and several 
 penguins, queer birds about the size of a duck, 
 
HIS VOYAGE AROUND CAPE HORN. 
 
 that swim under water, only coming to the surface 
 for air. They swim almost as fast as any fish and 
 venture long- distances from shore, we being at 
 the time over a hundred miles off the nearest 
 coast. Being unable to fly on account of the 
 diminutive pattern of their wings, which are used 
 as fins when in the water, they waddle about in 
 the most comical manner when on shore, so the 
 mate who has seen them there tells me. In the 
 afternoon the captain shot a pigeon with his rifle, 
 and I shot at several. 
 
 August 26. This afternoon we had a repeti- 
 tion, on a much smaller scale, of the terrible ex- 
 perience off the river Platte, with the addition 
 of a very high sea. The seas were tremendous, 
 several whoppers coming inboard. At one time 
 the main deck was full to within a foot of the top 
 of the rail, the men either floating or under water 
 in the lee-scuppers. 
 
 August 27. Our fiftieth day out, and a splendid 
 run we have made so far. I celebrated the occasion 
 by being knocked down by a sea that tumbled in on 
 me as I was standing on the weather side of the 
 poop, just forward of the mizzen-shrouds. I was 
 talking to the second mate, and was paying more 
 attention to one of his unbelievable yarns than to 
 the ocean, when all of a sudden I saw a big wave 
 tower over us, and before I could jump away 
 down it came, laying me out as flat as a Pinafore 
 
8o A LANDLUBBER'S LOG OF 
 
 joke, and washing me aft some thirty feet, where 
 the captain threw himself into the attitude of a 
 wicket-keeper at cricket and stopped me cleverly. 
 I was wet through, and my boots were filled with 
 salt water ; I thought for a moment that I was 
 overboard, and was about as well scared as possi- 
 ble. Mr. D was carried in an opposite direc- 
 tion on to the main-deck and brought up under 
 the pumps, from which position it took a. couple 
 of sailors to pull him out. 
 
 August 28. We ran past a bark under double- 
 reefed topsails ; she was pitching fearfully. All 
 to-day we have been accompanied by a large school 
 of right-whale porpoises. They are striped black 
 and white, and have much quicker movements 
 than the common black species ; often we could 
 see them shooting through the crest of a big wave 
 far above the level of the ship's deck. 
 
 August 29. To-day the gale suddenly shifted to 
 the southwest and south, blowing directly in our 
 teeth, and so continued until late in the after- 
 noon, when it sank to a fresh breeze. Mixed up 
 with these blows there has been, as the table 
 shows, a varied assortment of rain, snow, hail, 
 and sleet squalls, which cut the face like needles. 
 The quotations of the thermometer give but little 
 idea of the cold, the fierce wind and cutting rain 
 or spray making it many times worse than the 
 figures would seem. The whole appearance of 
 
HIS VOYAGE AROUND CAPE HORN. g t 
 
 the ship is changed. Everything about the decks 
 is strongly battened down, the windows across the 
 weather side of the houses are covered with strong 
 wooden shutters, heavy breakwaters have been 
 lashed amidships to break the force of incoming 
 seas, extra tackle made ready in case of accident is 
 hanging at the foot of the mizzen-mast, and a life- 
 line stretches across the poop-deck, to grab at in 
 case of a wave washing over that part of the ves- 
 sel. Instead of a cloud of canvas we only carry 
 the heavy lower sails, making the upper part of 
 the masts look bare and forlorn. The decks are 
 often swimming a foot deep with water, and are 
 never dry. The men, who are now prevented 
 from working about or aloft at their usual jobs, 
 are only worked at tending the sails, and between 
 orders stay under the lee of the forward house. 
 They look very odd, being swelled to nearly twice 
 their natural size by their thick clothes, over which 
 they wear oil-skin coats and trowsers, and also 
 rubber "sou'wester" hats. Those that have new 
 suits of oil-skins look like mammoth canary-birds, 
 the color of the garments being a bright yellow. 
 Through all their hardships, and this weather is 
 really very hard on them, they seem as cheerful 
 as possible, and sing their queer, monotonous 
 songs with a vim when pulling on the ropes 
 where all hands or a whole watch is needed. 
 At these times the carpenter is expected to lend 
 
g 2 A LANDLUBBER'S LOG OF 
 
 a hand, and when on deck I too catch hold and 
 help pull. The song-, or " shantee," as they call 
 it, which is sung when a whole watch or more 
 are hauling, consists in the leader singing a line, 
 then all hands the chorus, which is only one line 
 long, and at the same time giving two long, 
 steady pulls ; as the leader chants the next line 
 the men rest, then another chorus and pull, 
 and so on until the yard is hoisted or the sail 
 sheeted home. Of course I too have to wear 
 very different clothes from the cheviot shirt and 
 straw hat costume of warm latitudes. I am now 
 attired in the following: thick Scotch cap, heavy 
 silk muffler, under-shirt and two flannel shirts, 
 vest, jacket, and two pairs of trowsers, two pairs 
 of socks, heavy rubber boots, and over all my big 
 ulster. With all this on it is a good deal like 
 work to go aloft, but up I go every day, rain or 
 shine, generally stopping at the tops, now that 
 my sea-togs are so heavy and cumbersome. The 
 cold weather has the advantages of cooling the 
 drinking-water and making the butter as hard as 
 ice. 
 
 The head-sea to-day was awful, and to stand up 
 without holding on to something quite impossi- 
 ble, the ship seeming to stand right up on her 
 stern and bow ; yet with all the pitching and 
 rolling she does, so perfect is the model of her 
 hull that the motion is seldom jarring. Luckily 
 
HIS VOYAGE AROUND CAPE HORN. 83 
 
 for me, through all these blows my bunk has 
 been to leeward, and my seat at table to wind- 
 ward, so that I have been in no clanger of tum- 
 bling out of the first, or of getting a plate of 
 soup in my lap while at table. To-day we crossed 
 the fiftieth degree of latitude south of the equator, 
 from which point to fifty degrees south in the Pacific 
 is commonly recognized among sailors as going 
 around Cape Horn. 
 
 August 30. Wore ship this P.M. for the first 
 time, there being too much sea on to tack, and 
 stood in towards land, as we were getting too far 
 to the eastward. The charts are now kept on 
 the cabin-table all the time, and are consulted at 
 short intervals day and night. 
 
 August 31. The week winds up with a day 
 clear, cold, and bracing, a sunset magnificent in 
 the extreme, and a brilliant moonlight evening. 
 
84 A LANDLUBBER'S LOG OF 
 
 
 Table for week ending September 7. 
 
 September i. Lat. 55 29' S. Run 153 miles. 
 
 Lon. 64 34' W. Temp, at noon, 34. 
 
 Clear, cold, and fine. Moonlight. Passed Cape Horn at 11.30 P.M. 
 
 September 2. Lat. 57 04' S.* Run 200 miles. 
 
 Lon. 68 15' W. Temp, at noon, 39. 
 
 Light airs and calms most all day. Sighted Diego Ramirez Islands, 
 twenty-two miles to the N. W., at 4 P.M., from upper foretop-sail yard. 
 
 September 3. Lat. 56 38' S. Run 131 miles. 
 
 Lon. 71 51' W. Temp, at noon, 37. 
 
 Cold and rainy. Heavy S. W. swell. 
 
 September 4. Lat. 55 n' S. Run 196 miles. 
 
 Lon. 76 36' W. Temp, at noon, 38. 
 
 Cold and raw. High swell from S. W. Heavy gale all night, wifh 
 gigantic sea. 
 
 September 5. Lat. 53 29' S. Run 167 miles. 
 
 Lon. 77 25' W. Temp, at noon, 46. 
 
 Gale all day. Head-sea running " mountains high." 
 
 September 6. Lat. 53 $3' S. Run 97 miles. 
 
 Lon. 79 29' W. Temp, at noon, 44. 
 
 Moderate gale. Sea still high. Very little progress. 
 
 September 7. Lat. 53 O4 / S. Run 61 miles. 
 
 Lon. 79 39' W. Temp, at noon, 46. 
 
 Fine day. Sea lower. Cold, rainy evening. 
 
 * Farthest point south. 
 
MS VOYAGE AROUND CAPE HORN. 85 
 
 * 
 
 AT SEA, SUNDAY, September 7. 
 
 AROUND Cape Horn, and off for San Francisco. 
 The weeks and weeks of sailing south have done 
 their work, at last the dreaded Cape, our half-way 
 house, is passed, the Atlantic is far astern ; and 
 now, ploughing the waves of the South Pacific, 
 the good ship heads for the north and civilization. 
 Sixty-one days out and around Cape Horn is a 
 fine record, and with ordinary luck we'll make a 
 rapid passage. I hope so, I'm sure, for the cap- 
 tain's sake, and the sake of those at home, who, 
 unacquainted with the many harmless ways we 
 might be detained, would perhaps worry were 
 the voyage long-drawn out. One hundred and 
 twenty days would just suit me, bringing me 
 to 'Frisco November 5. Ten days on shore to 
 see the city and neighborhood, as well as to 
 tackle a few beefsteaks and fresh fruits, and then 
 take the steamer of the I5th for Yokohama. By 
 catching this boat I would be landed in Japan by 
 Christmas-day, which I'm not particularly anxious 
 to pass at sea. But with some seven thousand 
 miles still between us and port, any attempt to 
 figure our arrival down very fine would be fool- 
 ish. Cape Horn was on its best behavior when 
 
 8 
 
A LANDLUBBER'S LOG OF 
 
 we came around ; I had expected a gale that 
 would fairly blow my hair out by the roots. 
 Ever since leaving home I have heard and read 
 stories of the fierce storms that most ships en- 
 counter off the Cape. 
 
 Vessels are sometimes as much as ninety days 
 beating to the westward, a month is common 
 enough, and very often ships are compelled to 
 put back all the way to " Rio" for repairs. This 
 ship once, when just off the Cape, was headed 
 off by a gale that blew her back for six days, 
 and landed her so far to the eastward that she 
 was over two weeks in again reaching Cape 
 Horn. 
 
 The reason of the strength of these constant 
 westerly winds is that for thousands of miles no 
 land intervenes to break their velocity and power 
 as they come sweeping over the whole extent of 
 the Pacific. On this parallel of latitude a ship 
 could steer a straight westerly course right round 
 the world, and no other place on the globe offers 
 the same chance. The great preparation we 
 made for buckling the Cape was more evidence 
 of a rough time coming. All our light and old 
 sails taken down, and strong new ones bent in 
 their place. The hatches double-lashed to the 
 decks, breakwaters rigged amidships, to break 
 the force of any stray seas that should tumble 
 inboard, everything securely battened down, ex- 
 
HIS VOYAGE AROUND CAPE HORN. $ 7 
 
 tra tackles placed where they would be handy in 
 case of anything giving way, and a hundred other 
 little matters which would take too long to write 
 about. 
 
 Well, on each side of the Cape we had some 
 rough weather : one gale on the eastern coast 
 of Patagonia, and another on this side, and a 
 week or two of most disagreeable sleet, rain, 
 and snow squalls. But a regular out and out 
 Cape Horn blow didn't show up, although the 
 sample of last Friday, which was the finish of 
 a genuine A No. i gale, was enough to show 
 me what the weather clerk could do if he really 
 tried. 
 
 It certainly was a pleasant surprise in the face 
 of all our fears to go skipping around the Cape 
 before a stiff easily breeze, with all the kites set, 
 and the moon shining brightly overhead, and still 
 more surprised were we when the next day we 
 found ourselves lying becalmed off the Cape 
 proper, where we had looked for the hardest 
 blow of the voyage. But then there are excep- 
 tions to every rule, that of Cape Horn weather 
 included, although such are few and far between. 
 
 I left off last Sunday by saying it was a " bril- 
 liant moonlight evening ;" shortly after I had fin- 
 ished writing and turned in, the second mate 
 
 o 
 
 called down the companion-way that there was 
 an iceberg ahead. On hearing this the captain 
 
88 ,/ LANDLUBBER'S LOG OF 
 
 was on deck in about thirty seconds, and Mr. 
 
 X and I followed a minute later; but it 
 
 was a false alarm. Instead of an iceberg- there 
 loomed up, some twenty-five miles to the south- 
 ward, one of the highest mountains of Staten 
 Land (a large island lying off the eastern coast 
 of Terra del Fuego), its snow-covered top shining 
 
 in the moonlight having deceived Mr. D . 
 
 The body of the island was hidden by clouds, 
 and this one peak alone was visible ; ten minutes 
 afterwards it had disappeared. 
 
 September i. At sunrise this morning the ship 
 was abreast of the island, about ten miles off shore, 
 and as the sun came up clear and brilliant, an en- 
 ormous black squall that had until then completely 
 shut out a view of the land slowly drifted away. 
 A more beautiful scene than that which then broke 
 upon us I never beheld ; the wtiole extent of Staten 
 Land stood out clear-cut against a black -sky be- 
 yond; the mountains, which extended from end to 
 end, were covered to their tops with snow, and the 
 rising sun shining on them tinged the most ex- 
 posed sides and angles with a delicate pink shade, 
 and cast into deep shadow the valleys and great 
 fissures in the sides of the cliffs. In some parts 
 the mountains curved down to the water's edge 
 in great sheets of unbroken whiteness, and in 
 others the dark rugged cliffs rose straight from 
 the waves to the height of a thousand feet. 
 
HIS VOYAGE AROUND CAPE HORN. 
 
 8 9 
 
 For an hour we enjoyed the widely beautiful 
 scene, which as the sun rose higher and higher 
 constantly changed its brilliant hues, until at last 
 another tremendous squall slowly shut out the 
 view, and when some hours later it was again 
 clear, the island was almost out of sight. Staten 
 Land or Island (both names being used) is about 
 forty miles long, extending east-northeast and 
 west-southwest, and lying about one hundred and 
 fifty miles northeast of Cape Horn. It averages 
 four miles in width. Precipitous hills from two 
 thousand to three thousand feet high form a 
 rugged backbone the entire length of the island, 
 which, by the way, is also known as the Court of 
 Eolus, on account of the constant squalls and 
 storms there, and it is said that every day year in 
 and year out the squalls are as sure to come as 
 the sun is to rise. It is uninhabited, and the har- 
 bors are few and wretched ; wild celery and vari- 
 ous kinds of sea-birds abound (as the geographies 
 say), and the rocks are covered with a peculiar 
 kind of sea-weed which grows to the length of 
 several hundred feet, and is so wide and tough 
 that cups, buckets, and pans can be made of it. 
 
 11.30 P.M. we passed the longitude of Cape 
 Horn and at the same time into the Pacific Ocean, 
 after a run of eight thousand four hundred and 
 seventy-six miles in fifty-five and one-third days 
 from Delaware Bay, a daily average of one hun- 
 
9 o 
 
 A LANDLUBBER'S LOG OF 
 
 clred and fifty-three and one-sixth miles. We 
 were then thirty miles south of the Cape proper, 
 which is a small island and of no account at all 
 in itself, being only about a mile or two square. 
 I stayed on deck until midnight. The sky was 
 covered with patches of swiftly moving clouds, 
 which now and then shut out the bright moonlight 
 as they drifted across her disk. The ship was 
 running very rapidly before a fresh northeast 
 breeze, every rag that would draw set, and really 
 presented a beautiful appearance. The surface 
 of the ocean was a mass of roaring breakers, 
 caused by the strong westerly current running in 
 a contrary direction to the wind, which as they 
 broke into foam looked in the bright moonlight 
 like heaps of snow. Right overhead sparkled 
 the Southern Cross, now seen at its best. It is a 
 very beautiful constellation ; from this time it will 
 gradually sink behind us. 
 
 September 2. The ship lay becalmed all the 
 morning, light breezes springing up after dinner. 
 Made out the Diego Ramirez rocks at 4 P.M., 
 from the foretop-gallant yard, twenty-two miles 
 ahead, the ship then heading northwest. These 
 are a cluster of great barren rocks fifty-four miles 
 southwest of Cape Horn, and are the most south- 
 erly land of South America. There are three 
 principal rocks and many lesser ones in the 
 group, which extends northwest and southeast 
 
HIS VOYAGE AROUND CAPE HORN. g l 
 
 four or five miles. Numberless sea-birds, and 
 some seals, live on them. 
 
 The ship " St. John," I mentioned last week had 
 a very narrow escape from being lost on these 
 rocks when on her way home from 'Frisco a year 
 or two ago. She had been running by dead 
 reckoning before a "westerly" for several days, 
 when one pitch-dark night she ran at full speed 
 straight between two of the largest rocks, through 
 a narrow channel a mile long ; so close was she 
 to the rocks that the breakers carried away all 
 her starboard rail. 
 
 September 5. During the afternoon and night 
 we had the hardest gale of the voyage so far, and 
 from the tremendous sea running from that direc- 
 tion it was certainly the finishing touch of a regu- 
 lar sou'wester, although the wind had hauled 
 around to 'the northwest. The sail report taken 
 from the log will show how it came on to blow 
 harder and harder. "Up to i P.M. all sail ; i P.M. 
 furled royals ; 2 P.M. furled top-gallant-sails ; 2.30 
 P.M. furled cross-jack and reefed upper topsails 
 and spanker; 3 P.M. furled upper topsails and jib; 
 3.45 P.M. furled mainsail and reefed foresail. So 
 until 9 A.M. Saturday, -when the wind moderated 
 and set upper topsails and mainsail," etc. The 
 ship was pitching right into the head-sea, her 
 bows going under at every dip and flooding the 
 decks with water, so sleep was out of the question, 
 
g 2 A LANDLUBBER'S LOG OF 
 
 and to stand up without some support impossible. 
 I climbed out of my bunk in short order to prevent 
 being tossed out, which would not have been at 
 all amusing, as I use the upper one. 
 
 September 6. The ocean presented a magnifi- 
 cent sight, the truly gigantic waves towering 
 above us at one moment and the next lifting- the 
 
 o 
 
 ship high in their crests as though she we're a bit 
 of cork. The seas had lengthened out consider- 
 ably and the ship no longer plunged head on into 
 them, but rose and fell with an easy, pleasant mo- 
 tion. During this blow it was and still is a diffi- 
 cult feat to eat, one's whole time being occupied 
 while at table in watching that the plates don't 
 deposit their contents in one's lap. The swinging 
 castor gave me a gentle rap on the cheek to-day 
 that has left its mark for some time to come. 
 
 Being this week in iceberg regions, we have at 
 night doubled the forward lookout, and had an 
 extra man stationed on the poop-deck. The 
 officer on watch also tries the temperature of 
 the water every half-hour as a further precaution 
 against these dangerous objects. None have ap- 
 peared, however. To-day the sea is much lower, 
 but still very high, and rifnning strong. These 
 long swells, whose tops are about one thousand 
 feet apart, are found here all the year round, and 
 are peculiar to Cape Horn, only building up close 
 together in a regular gale. 
 
HIS VOYAGE AROUND CAPE HORN. 
 
 93 
 
 September 7. Like last Sunday, to-day has been 
 a fine one, but unlike last Sunday evening, to- 
 night is chill and rainy, and most disagreeable, 
 except in the cabin. This morning I remarked to 
 the second mate that it was odd we had sighted 
 no ice, and as usual he took the cue and proceeded 
 to spin me a yarn on the subject broached. As a 
 specimen of his efforts you shall have it as best 
 I can remember it. 
 
 "Yes," said he, "it is a bit queer, but there's 
 time yet to clap our eyes on ice before we get 
 away from these parts, tho' for my part I don't 
 much care about seein' none. Ice, you see, Mr. 
 Mac, is always a nuscience at sea, and no skipper 
 likes to have it about. I've seen a good bit of it 
 in my time, and about three years ago I was down 
 just about this very place ; I had enough of it 
 then to last me for a good while to come. You 
 see I was second mate of the ' British Racer,' an 
 old eighteen-hundred-ton 'lime-juicer,' and we was 
 carryin' coal from Cardiff to 'Frisco (a 'lime-juicer,' 
 I must tell you, is sea-slang for an English vessel, 
 the English law making it compulsory for the 
 captain to serve his crew with a certain amount 
 of lime-juice per man per day, as a preventive 
 against scurvy). Well, sir, we was gettin' along 
 right smartly, and had come 'round the Cape just 
 as nice as we did here the other night, with the 
 kites up and even two or three stuns'ls out, and 
 
A LANDLUBBER'S LOG OF 
 
 the old man, Cap'n Gordon, of Belfast, was just 
 as pleased as pie. One night when it was my 
 middle watch, I was goin' for'ad to see that 
 the lookout wasn't asleep, when just by the fore 
 shrouds I was met with a puff of hot air that had 
 a gassy sort of smell, and quick as a wink I 
 knowed we was a-fire somewhere below. That 
 soft coal is blank for a-breakin' out a-fire, and so 
 I knowed at once what was the row. I bolted 
 for the old man's cabin, and turned him out in 
 no time by sayin' what I found out for'ad, and 
 he didn't lose no time gettin' on deck, runnin' 
 out just as he was, about half dressed. You 
 see, he had a good slice of the ship himself, and 
 I guess the old girl wasn't insured very high. 
 'Well,' says he, when we'd taken a look at 
 things and saw that the seams was beginnin' to 
 smoke a little, 'here's a go and no mistake ! ain't it, 
 
 Mr. D ?' And I says, 'Yes, cap'n, it is, and 
 
 a blank bad one, too.' ' I didn't want to load the 
 blank stuff/ says he, gettin' mad all at once, ''cause 
 I knowed its dirty tricks and ways ; but it's aboard 
 now and burnin', and now wot's to be done ? for,' 
 says be, slow and solemn-like, ' this here ship is 
 'booked for the bottom, and that, too, afore many 
 
 days. Call the mate, Mr. D , and then all 
 
 hands.' 
 
 " V/hen the men was all amidships, the old man 
 gives out what I'd found, and orders the pumps 
 
HIS VOYAGE AROUND CAPE HORN. 
 
 to be rigged, and a couple of lines of pipe run 
 down through the deck where it was hottest, 
 which was well for'ad, as I said before. All that 
 night and the next day we pumped and pumped 
 water into her, and then pumped and pumped it 
 out again, but it didn't seem to do any good, as 
 the smoke came out thicker and thicker each hour, 
 till it was plain as the mains'l we couldn't drown 
 the blaze. In the first dog-watch we give over 
 tryin', and the old man says, ' Me lads, this here's 
 a bad job, and it looks tho' the " Racer" was run- 
 ning a pretty straight course for Davy Jones ; the 
 port watch'll start in and get the boats ready for 
 leavin' the ship, and the starboard watch'll begin 
 bringin' out some stores.' 
 
 "All that night we was hard at it, and by mornin' 
 had the boats well fixed and ready to let fall at a 
 minute's notice. About three bells that evenin' we 
 was takin' our tea, when a fellow in my watch that 
 we called Scopey, 'cause his eyes was reg'lar tele- 
 scopes for spyin' things, sings out, 'Ice ahead, two 
 p'ints on the port bow !' And sure enough, when 
 the ship rose up again there was a little twinklin' 
 spot right on the sky-line, a-shinin' like a diamond. 
 The old man pops below, and pops up again with 
 his glass, and then takes a good long look at the 
 stranger, t'wards the end of which look I sees a 
 pleased-like expression come over his face. ' Let 
 her go off a p'int,' says he to the man at the wheel, 
 
96 A LANDLUBBER'S LOG OF 
 
 1 and keep her nor' by west, a quarter west/ ' Ay, 
 ay, sir!' says the man, and we began runnin' freer 
 and straight for the ice. Soon after that it come 
 on dark and we took in considerable sail, so as to 
 slack up our speed, and at sun-up next mornin' 
 made the ice about six miles ahead, a reg'lar old 
 giant of a berg, sparklin' in the sun like a million 
 tons of mother-o'-pearl. There was a easy breeze 
 blowin', just where we wanted it, and makin' the 
 ship as easy to handle as a pilot-boat. ' Run for 
 it,' says the old man to Mr. Corker, the mate, 'and 
 let's see what it looks like close on.' Pretty soon 
 we was within half a mile of it, and certainly it was 
 grand, bein', I should judge, about a mile long by 
 nearly as much wide, and heavin' up in some 
 places eleven or twelve hundred feet. ' Back the 
 main yard, Mr. Corker,' says the old man, * and 
 get away the whale-boat. I think I'll go ashore 
 and do a little prospectin'. Six men here, tumble 
 
 in, you with 'em, Mr. D ,' and in no time we 
 
 was off and pullin' for the ice. The old man 
 soon sees a place where landin' was easy, a reg'- 
 lar ice-wharf extendin' back about two hundred 
 yards, and as level as the deck of a ship layin' at 
 anchor, and we pulls alongside of it, makin' fast 
 to a spike drove into the ice. The old man tum- 
 bled out, and, tellin' us to wait, sticks his hands 
 into his pockets and walks off. When he comes 
 back he was all smiles, and sings out, ' Hit her up 
 
HIS VOYAGE AROUND CAPE HORN. 
 
 now, boys, and we'll soon be as snug as tho' we 
 was safe ashore in Liverpool/ When we gets 
 back to the ' Racer,' and was- aboard again, he 
 says, as cheerful as you please, tho' the old girl 
 was a-smokin' away for'ad like a blank volcaner, 
 * Take in the r'yals and t'gall'nts, Mr. Corker, and 
 s'pose you let go the upper tops'l halliards too. 
 Work her up close to the berg under the courses, 
 and back the main yard just off that flat p'int 
 where I made a landinV When we was there he 
 sends two hawsers ashore, and makes 'em fast to 
 a couple of spars planted in the ice, and then 
 warps the old gal up to the ice-wharf as neat and 
 ship-shape as if we was tyin' up to a reg'lar civil- 
 ized dock, tho' of course the ship scraped a bit on 
 account of the sea. ' Knock away the bulwarks 
 alongside the ice, Mr. Corker,' says the old man, 
 almost laughin' he was so pleased, and we soon 
 had 'em down and the deck about level with the 
 flat part of the berg. Well, sir, we just cleaned 
 that ship out, takin' ashore, as we called it, all the 
 stores and tools and lumber and sails, even to the 
 rag carpet off the cabin floor and the rubber balls 
 what the kittens used to play with about the deck. 
 ' Now, men,' says the old man, when there was 
 nothin' else as could very well be shifted, and we 
 was about used up, * off with the main hatch, and 
 begin passin* out the cargo. The fire hasn't 
 tackled that part yet, and we can get a fair bit 
 
 E g 9 
 
A LANDLUBBER'S LOG OF 
 
 of it out afore the ship is too hot to work on ;' for, 
 lucky for us, the breeze carried the smoke that 
 was pourin' out for'ad clean away from us, which 
 prevented our bein' choked to death. Now the 
 men took this order as pretty hard lines, and, 
 seein' how they'd been workin', it did look kinda 
 rough. ' Wot's the use o' that?' says one of 'em, 
 speakin' for the crowd. 'We're blank near dead 
 a' ready, and don't see wot you want the coal for, 
 nohow ; we've plenty o' wood to burn.' 
 
 " ' Wot !' says the old man, gettin' hot, ' is that 
 the way you're goin' to act after me showin' such 
 kindness to ye for three whole months? Here, now, 
 tumble to, and no sulkin'. Why, blank your lazy 
 hides, I'll take a hand meself.' And he off s with 
 his pea-jacket and starts in. That cheered the 
 boys up a bit, and so they went to work with a 
 will, and never stopped till there was near seven 
 hundred tons of coal safe and sound on the ice, 
 and well back from the edge. At last we couldn't 
 work no longer, for the flames broke out and just 
 went for things like a lot of hungry tigers. ' Cast 
 her off!' yells the old man, and the next minit 
 the old gal was driftin' away all ablaze and lookin' 
 splendid. Well, sir, we lived on that berg for a 
 year, lackin' just five days, and, barrin' the cold, 
 was as cheerful and comfortable as you please. 
 We built a nice house, and had plenty to eat and 
 nothing to do, the only duty being to keep a 
 
HIS VOYAGE AROUND CAPE HORN. 
 
 lookout from one of the high points where we 
 rigged a signal-station, and kept the flags flyin' 
 all the time there was daylight and a big bonfire 
 all night. We found a little polar bear cub, too, 
 and brought her up as a pet ; but her temper bein' 
 pretty cross-grained we had to be careful not to 
 tease her, and the cap'n named her Maria Ann, 
 which he said was the name of his wife's mother, 
 who was snappish like the bear and reminded 
 him of her. At the end of six months the berg 
 had melted about half away, and in nine was only 
 about a quarter the size it had been when we 
 boarded it, and all that time we hadn't seen a 
 single sail. 
 
 " One day, about noon, I was just goin' up to the 
 signal-staff, when I see the flag run up as had 
 been fixed to signify sail in sight. c Sail ho !' I 
 sings out, and the men comes runnin' out, sayin', 
 ' Where ? where ?' Up we all scrambles, and sure 
 enough there was a sail comin' head on right for 
 the berg on the opposite side from Racerville, as 
 we called the camp. 
 
 " * It's a steamer under all sail,' says the old 
 man. 
 
 " She came on awful slow, and it was a good 
 while before we could signal her ; but at last she 
 saw us, and runs up her awnsering pennant. 
 
 " ' Who are you ?' says we. 
 
 " * British steamship " Haystack," from Buenos 
 
100 A LANDLUBBER'S LOG OF 
 
 * 
 
 Ayres for Callao,' says the steamer, and then runs 
 up. * Do you want to be taken off?' 
 
 " ' Well, rather,' says we. * Heave to, and we'll 
 come aboard.' So she runs a little closer and 
 heaves to. The old man and me and six men 
 pulls off to her, and, when we got on deck, the 
 old man says, 
 
 " ' Cap'n Morgan, I believe?' Havin' found the 
 other skipper's name in an old register. 
 
 " ' Yes,' says the other old man. ' What's the 
 matter with you, wrecked ?' For we looked as 
 healthy and ship-shape as you please. 
 
 " 'Yes,' says our old man ; ' I lost my ship, the 
 " British Racer," a year ago next Monday by fire, 
 and have been campin' out ever since.' 
 
 " ' Well,' says the other, ' you're cool about it, 
 'an' no mistake.' 
 
 " ' A year on a iceberg is calkerlated to make a 
 feller coolish,' says our old man, grinnin'. And 
 then lookin' round, says, * Ain't you steamin' ?' 
 
 " ' No,' says Cap'n Morgan ; ' I was blowed 
 out of my way so far down off the Falklands 
 that I used up all my coal, and have been tryin' 
 to get along under canvas ever since. But it's 
 dreadful slow, and I'm agoin' to break up the wood- 
 work and clap on steam again.' 
 
 " ' Wot's your cargo ?' says Cap'n Gordon. 
 
 " ' Meat,' says Cap'n Morgan. ' Fresh meat 
 in ice-chests ; but the ice's 'most gone, and I was 
 
HIS VOYAGE AROUND CAPE HORN. IO i 
 
 standin' for the berg to get a new supply when I 
 made out your signals. I'm afeared tho' it'll spile 
 afore I can fix it up and make port.' 
 
 " ( What'll you give a ton for good coal?' says 
 our old man, kinda smilin'. 
 
 " ' What ? says Cap'n Morgan. 
 
 " ' I says what'll you give for coal ?' says ours. 
 
 " * What d'you mean ?' says Cap'n Morgan, 
 lookin' as tho' he took our old man to be off his nut. 
 
 " 'Why,' says Cap'n Gordon, ' I've a coal-mine on 
 this island of mine ; not much of a one, but I could 
 let you have say seven hundred tons at a fair price ; 
 and if you take it all I'll let you have the ice free, 
 throw it in as it were, and not say nothin' about it.' 
 
 " At first Cap'n Morgan thought our old man 
 gone cranky, but when he found out we really did 
 have the coal, he says, 
 
 " ' Well, you let me have the coal, and I'll take 
 you and your crew to Callao for nothin'.' 
 
 " * Oh, no,' says our old man; 'we're comfortable, 
 and in no hurry to move. I'll- let you have the 
 coal for five pounds per ton, fifty per cent, off for 
 cash, delivered alongside the berg.' 
 
 " ' Five pounds a ton !' yells the steamer's old 
 man. ' Why, you must think I'm the Duke 
 o' Westminster. I'll give you one.' 
 
 " ' Say two pounds ten,' says our old man, ' and 
 I'll throw in my mother-in-law, I mean a she polar 
 bear, into the bargain.' 
 
102 A LANDLUBBER'S LOG OF 
 
 " ( Polar bear be blanked !' says Cap'n Morgan. 
 * I ain't commandin' a zoological garden this v'yage.' 
 
 " ' Well,' says our old man, ' one pound takes it ; 
 and you can bring the " Haystack" up alongside 
 safe enough, for the water's deep snug on.' 
 
 " Well, we soon had the coal shifted again, and 
 as I said, just five days less than the year we cast 
 off and stood away for Callao, Maria Ann and 
 all, only the two kittens bein' missin', they havin' 
 been eat by Maria about six months before. I 
 shipped from Callao for Antwerp, and never 
 heard of any of the crew again till just before we 
 started away this time, when I read a piece in the 
 New York Herald, tellin' about a seafarin' party 
 as was killed by his mother-in-law during a quar- 
 rel about keepin' a white bear chained in the old 
 lady's garden, and from what it said I come to the 
 conclusion it must have been the ' Racer's' old 
 man what was killed, and that the white bear 
 must have been Maria Ann." 
 
 Mr. D- reels these yarns off in the most 
 solemn manner, and I never express the slightest 
 want of faith in them, although I can hardly believe 
 that he actually thinks I take them to be true. 
 Whenever the captain or mate is about, his lips 
 are sealed and his fictions are hushed. In fact, I 
 seem to be the only person, besides Chips, who 
 he makes a confidant in, regarding his remarkable 
 adventures. 
 
HIS VOYAGE AROUND CAPE HORN. 
 
 Table for week ending September 14. 
 
 September 8. Lat. 52 28' S. Run 149 miles. 
 
 Lon. 83 20' W. Temp, at noon, 45. 
 
 Heavy squalls all night. Head-sea. Fog all day. 
 
 September 9. Lat. 51 47' S. Run 147 miles. 
 
 Lon. 85 49' W. Temp, at noon, 40. 
 
 Cold and rainy. Moderate gale. High sea. 
 
 September 10. Lat. 50 2$' S. Run 139 miles. 
 
 Lon. 85 28' W. Temp, at noon, 49. 
 
 Beautiful day. High sea. 
 
 September 11. Lat. 47 34' S. Run 186 miles. 
 
 Lon. 84 04' W. Temp, at noon, 52. 
 
 Beautiful day. Light airs and calms. 
 
 September 12. Lat. 46 42' S. Run 68 miles. 
 
 Lon. 83 47' W. Temp, at noon, 52. 
 
 Weather fine. Scored our tenth thousand mile. 
 
 September 13. Lat. 44 53 S. Run 176 miles. 
 
 Lon. 87 03' W. Temp, at noon, 45. 
 
 Thick, colder and damp. 
 
 September 14. Lat. 43 56' S. Run 121 miles. 
 
 Lon. 88 20' W. Temp, at noon, 46. 
 
 Damp and unpleasant. Wind dead ahead most all the week. 
 
A LANDLUBBER'S LOG OF 
 
 AT SEA, SUNDAY, September 14. 
 
 A POOR week's work and one not calculated to 
 help the quick passage we have been counting on. 
 Wind dead ahead and continuous tacking has 
 been the bugbear all through the week and still 
 continues. It is very aggravating after such a 
 good run. 
 
 Everything shows that we are approaching fine 
 weather regions again, for which change I'll not 
 be sorry. Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday were 
 model days ; such days that could I pickle a few 
 and get them home, I could dispose of them to 
 invalids or picnic-parties at very high prices ; but 
 we're still in rough regions, and are liable to have 
 gales any time until we strike across thirty de- 
 grees south. 
 
 Saturday and to-day the weather changed for 
 the worse again, and this evening looks threaten- 
 ing and squally to the southwest, the direction 
 rough weather generally comes from down here. 
 
 September 8. In the afternoon we saw a superb 
 fog-bow to the southward ; it lasted about fifteen 
 minutes. The fog-horn was kept going all day, 
 being performed on by one of the watch on deck, 
 
HIS VOYAGE AROUND CAPE HORN. IQ r 
 
 who paced the top-gallant forecastle while he 
 sounded the warning. 
 
 September 9. I caught a splendid albatross and 
 also one of the half-breeds that were flying about 
 us, by letting over a strong cod-line baited with 
 pork fat. At least twenty small birds were hav- 
 ing a battle over it, when several big ones came 
 swooping down and scattered them away. In a 
 second my prize had swallowed furiously. He 
 was a beauty, with soft white throat, breast, and 
 wings, which, when spread out on his body, meas- 
 ured over eight feet across. I have them as tro- 
 phies, also his skull and back. The half-breed 
 
 had brown wines, and measured six feet across. 
 
 <_> ' 
 
 These birds are great company for us ; since the 
 2 ist of August we have been accompanied by 
 more or less of them every day, rain or shine. 
 
 There are several kinds. First, the Cape 
 pigeons I spoke of before ; these are very com- 
 pactly built little fellows, and are the most numer- 
 ous ; they are very tame, and superlatively greedy. 
 To feed they have to first settle in the water, and 
 it is very amusing to throw over a bit of fat or 
 bread and watch them fight over it. The instant 
 one sees it, no matter how fast he is flying, he 
 throws back his wings and half flies, half tumbles, 
 into the water, then scrambles up and grabs it. 
 Generally three or four see it at the same time, 
 and it looks as if they had been shot to see them 
 
I0 6 A LANDLUBBER'S LOG OF 
 
 come tumbling down, head over heels, in their 
 haste to reach the coveted morsel. If it is too 
 big a piece for one to fly away with or swallow 
 whole, a regular raid is made on the one who has 
 it, twenty or thirty getting around it, all scram- 
 bling and pushing to get a bite. They never ut- 
 ter a sound, except at these times, when they give 
 weak little quacks like miniature ducks. They 
 float on the water as lightly as a ball of cotton, 
 and look very pretty. Then there are the regu- 
 lar albatrosses, known by their white heads and 
 pinkish beaks, and the half-breeds, like the one 
 we caught. Also some birds called molly-mokes, 
 about the size of a turkey. These are hideously 
 ugly creatures that are a dirty-black color all 
 over, and have white eyes ; they are not as tame 
 as the other birds, and will not bite at our line. 
 
 Sometimes there are a few gulls of various 
 kinds, pure white, and gray, but they are scarce, 
 as we are too far off shore to suit their taste. 
 All these birds have the same graceful flight, 
 sweeping swiftly over the waves, rising and fall- 
 ing as the water rises and falls, and making long 
 curves around the ship, often dozens flying in a 
 body. They are always on the lookout for food, 
 and will tackle anything at all ; I often fool them 
 by throwing over a few chips of wood. The larger 
 birds cannot bring up as suddenly as the pigeons, 
 but have to circle once or twice before settling 
 
HIS VOYAGE AROUND CAPE HORN. 
 
 down. The little ones always find and get to the 
 bits of pork first, and, if it be a large piece, are 
 just getting interested in it when down come 
 the big fellows, squawking at a great rate, and 
 promptly take possession, swallowing at one gulp 
 what the pigeons could not fly away with. I saw 
 one bolt a piece that weighed over a pound. 
 When the prize is light enough to carry, the 
 pigeons grab it up and fly away with it to de- 
 vour it undisturbed, and the big birds are too 
 clumsy to catch them. The albatrosses are es- 
 pecially strong of flight, and are said to have one 
 more bone in their wings than any bird known. 
 It is really marvellous to see them, as they sail as 
 straight as a bullet right into the teeth of a roar- 
 ing gale without a movement of their outstretched 
 wings, and apparently without an effort of any 
 sort. 
 
 The legs of all these birds are very weak, and 
 will not support them when on a hard surface. 
 They use them to run along the tops of the waves 
 for a yard or two when they start in their flight, 
 but cannot rise from the deck of a vessel, so that 
 once get one on board and he cannot escape ; and 
 an odd fact is that when brought on board they 
 are always sea-sick, vomiting whatever they may 
 have eaten, and naturally presenting a very ludi- 
 crous appearance. They live on the various 
 squids, etc., that are found on the surface of the 
 
I0 8 A LANDLUBBER'S LOG OF 
 
 water, and only follow the ships for the delica- 
 cies of their bill of fare. Of all the things they 
 like, "slush" is their favorite. It is the grease 
 that is used in rubbing down the topmasts and 
 top-gallant-masts, and for various other jobs on 
 board ship. The slush-barrel is kept forward, 
 and I waste about a quart every day feeding 
 them. I am trying, by a daily supply of this, 
 how far north I can lure them. 
 
 Besides all these, we once in a while see, but 
 oftener only hear, the penguins, those queer birds 
 that cannot fly, but swim under water. Some- 
 times they jump from the water just as a porpoise 
 does. To-day I heard several, but could not catch 
 a glimpse of any, as they are very shy. When I 
 mentioned the other day that they ventured a 
 long way from land, we were then one hundred 
 miles off the coast ; to-day we are six hundred. 
 
 September 10. In the evening there was a fine 
 display of the Southern Lights, or Aurora Aus- 
 tralis, a phenomenon which corresponds with the 
 Aurora Borealis of northern latitudes. 
 
 September n. The captain, Mr. X , and 
 
 I spent the afternoon shooting at the birds. 
 Result, seven rifle-shots, twenty-four revolver- 
 shots, three horse-pistol shots,= one pigeon. The 
 solitary victim to all this expenditure of powder 
 and shot was hit by the captain with the horse- 
 pistol. As the bird was only some eight feet 
 
HIS VOYAGE AROUND CAPE HORN. 
 
 109 
 
 away, and the pistol was charged with an ounce 
 of buckshot, he could hardly have missed. I fired 
 the other two shots out of the pistol, and most of 
 the revolver cartridges, but the ship tossed so you 
 couldn't get any aim. The pistol was a pre- 
 historic relic, which kicked like a pair of mules. 
 
 September 12. To-day we scored our tenth 
 thousand mile. 
 
 September 14. This evening, just before sun- 
 set, we sighted a bark bound south, probably 
 from the Guano Islands, off the coast of Peru. 
 The voyage has now a different aspect to us all, 
 and I must say I'm glad we are heading towards 
 the north star. It gives the greatest satisfaction 
 to know we are actually steering for port, and 
 although still enthusiastic on the delights of the 
 trip, I am glad it is more than half over ; as if we 
 are out very many days more, I'll have to have 
 every rag of clothes let out when I get to 'Frisco. 
 I am getting fat, and am as tough as sole leather. 
 I forgot to say before that we have a sailor who 
 
 cuts hair quite nicely. Mr. X and I have 
 
 each passed through his hands once. 
 
 10 
 

 IIO A LANDLUBBER'S LOG OF 
 
 Table for week ending September 21. 
 
 September 15. Lat. 41 45' S. Run 159 miles. 
 
 Lon. 87 07' W. Temp, at noon, 52. 
 
 Damp and unpleasant. Heavy squalls all day. Sea running high. 
 Thousands of birds 
 
 September 16. Lat., 38 5 1 7 S. Run 183 miles. 
 
 Lon. 86 43 X W. Temp, at noon, 59. 
 
 Beautiful day. Stiff breeze. Sea very high. Much water coming on 
 board. 
 
 September 17. Lat. 35 34' S. Run 203 miles. 
 
 Lon. 86 39' W. Temp, at noon, 58. 
 
 Weather fine. Light breezes. 
 
 September 18. Lat. 34 24' S. Run 88 miles. 
 
 Lon. 87 44' W. Temp, at noon, 58. 
 
 September 19. Lat. 32 46' S. Run 108 miles. 
 
 Lon. 88 38' W. Temp, at noon, 61. 
 
 Fine day. Calm all afternoon. 
 
 September 20. Lat. 31 56' S. Run 54 miles. 
 
 Lon. 88 56' W. Temp, at noon, 64. 
 
 Light airs and calms. Weather fine. 
 
 September 21. Lat. 31 oo' S. Run 58 miles. 
 
 Lon. 88 45 x W. Temp, at noon, 69. 
 
 Light airs and calms. Beautiful sunset. Latter part of week in 
 " calms of Capricorn." 
 
HIS VOYAGE AROUND CAPE HORN. 
 
 AT SEA, SUNDAY, September 21. 
 
 LAST week we had to contend against adverse 
 winds, and most of this week what is worse, no 
 winds at all, at least very little, and light at that. 
 As I write, the ship is scarcely moving, the ocean 
 is as smooth as a mill-pond, and the swell has so 
 decreased as to be hardly perceptible. It is very 
 discouraging after such a fine run to be thus stuck. 
 Each day we paddle along in these calms of 
 Capricorn counts against our looked for " clipper" 
 passage, and the captain's face grows longer and 
 longer as the calms continue, and he pictures the 
 "Spinney" far to the westward bowling along, while 
 we are idle ; however, perhaps the " Spinney" is as 
 badly off as we are. Monday and Tuesday the 
 wind was fresh and fine, and we were just be- 
 ginning to chuckle, when presto, change ! and it 
 was gone. All along there have been whiffs of 
 air enough to make it pleasant and keep steerage- 
 way on the ship ; what little we have made has 
 generally been at night, as during the daytime we 
 have hardly averaged a mile an hour. After dark 
 light breezes come fanning over the water, and 
 we take every advantage possible to be had from 
 them. I wish my friends at home could see the 
 
II2 A LANDLUBBER* S LOG OF 
 
 sunsets in these calm regions of the ocean. At 
 all times and in all places they have been beauti- 
 ful, but nowhere so delicate in coloring- as in these 
 
 o 
 
 parts. The sun generally sets perfectly clear, a 
 brilliant dazzling color, turning the western ocean 
 a deep blood-red, and in parts a rich purple. But 
 it is the after-glow that is so enchanting. Such 
 a perfect blending of colors, such exquisitely deli- 
 cate tinting, can nowhere else be seen. The light 
 fleecy clouds fantastically grouped and scattered 
 about in curious forms are painted by the dying 
 sun in every conceivable shade, in some places in 
 the most startling contrasts, while in others the 
 colors blend as delicately as in a prism. 
 
 Clouds tinted a rich turkey-red or gorgeous 
 orange float along beside, others as white as snow 
 or deep black. The background of the sky ap- 
 pears like a huge rainbow, and as it rises from 
 the horizon assumes all the colors of that beauti- 
 ful object, seemingly fused together, yet each tint 
 distinctly visible, until overhead it deepens into a 
 dark, clear blue, set with countless twinkling stars. 
 Gradually all these colors fade away, until at last 
 only a faint streak is left to show where the sun 
 went down. Each evening the scene is changed, 
 and I look forward with pleasure all day to the 
 time when these splendid natural transformation 
 scenes begin. 
 
 This evening the western sky was the picture 
 
HIS VOYAGE AROUND CAPE HORN. It ^ 
 
 of a rocky coast, in which the entrance to a har- 
 bor was visible, having on one side a fort, and on 
 the other a light-house. In the middle of this open- 
 ing a small cloud gave the finishing-touch to the 
 picture by slowly rising from the horizon, looking 
 as if a ship was coming out between the headlands. 
 The moonrises, too, are magnificent, and sometimes 
 rival the sunsets in their wild and startling beauty. 
 
 Monday we were accompanied by more birds 
 than on any day at all, but since then they have 
 gradually left us, and to-day only a dozen pigeons 
 and two little " Mother Carey's Chickens," which 
 turned up yesterday, are in sight. These wee 
 little creatures look very funny in comparison to 
 the other birds, even the pigeons looking gigantic 
 in contrast. 
 
 September 16. All the morning the ship was 
 drenching herself with spray, which for an hour 
 fell in showers as far aft as the mainmast, and 
 one extra big splash completely wet a man on 
 the main yard and passed over the stern. 
 
 September \ 7. Ran past the latitude of Robin- 
 son Crusoe's Island, and some three hundred and 
 fifty miles to the westward of it. 
 
 September 18. To-day we had three new spe- 
 cies of birds in company, some largish brown fel- 
 lows twice the size of the pigeons, and wonder- 
 ful divers ; also two kinds of gray, one of which 
 I caught, and have his wings. Our two kittens 
 
 h 10* 
 
U^ A LANDLUBBER'S LOG OF 
 
 almost go crazy whenever I catch a bird, for it 
 means fresh meat to them, and the way they im- 
 prove the opportunity and tackle the carcass is a 
 caution. 
 
 September 19 and 20. Shifted all the strong 
 sails for the old ones used in light-weather re- 
 gions. It makes a big job, as every sail on the 
 ship has been changed twice except the mizzen- 
 royal and spanker. 
 
 September 2 1 . This morning at sunrise sighted 
 a large English iron ship, bound south ; are still 
 in sight of her. She has been drifting about in 
 all directions, not being able to steer as easily as 
 we do. There is no more helpless sight than a 
 big ship totally becalmed. During the week I 
 have started to keep a chart of our daily run. It 
 is on a very small scale, but will show our course 
 and the distance made every day of the voyage. 
 
 Last evening, during the first dog-watch, I was 
 on the foretop-gallant yard, and, happening to 
 look aft, saw a flying-fish attempt to pass across 
 the ship, but come to grief by striking the main- 
 sail. Mr. D , who was on deck, off duty, 
 
 picked it up, glanced around, and then walked 
 aft and started up the mizzen rigging. I watched 
 him curiously, and was astonished to see him pro- 
 ceed all the way up to the royal yard, work his 
 way out on it to windward, and carefully stick the 
 dead fish into the extreme point of the yard, shov- 
 
HTS VOYAGE AROUND CAPE HORN. TI ^ 
 
 ing its head, as I afterwards found by examination, 
 into a large crack. He then descended to the 
 deck. It was evident that I was to benefit by the 
 performance, and as I did not want him to know 
 I had witnessed his little game, I remained hidden 
 behind the mast till he at last went into his room, 
 when I hurried down and reached the after-cabin 
 before he reappeared on deck. After waiting till 
 I saw him come out I followed suit, and as soon 
 as he spied me he spun me the following fib, 
 which, to his great delight, I apparently swallowed 
 whole : 
 
 ""You should have been here a minuit ago, 
 Mr. Mac ; there was a school of what we call 
 sky-scrapers went across the ship, and it isn't 
 more'n once in a dozen voyages you'll see 'em." 
 
 " What are sky-scrapers ?" I asked, innocently. 
 
 " Why, they're a kind of flying-fish that fly fifty 
 times as high as the reg'lar sort, and don't think 
 nothin' of doin' two or three miles at a lick. I 
 was lookin' out to windward, when I saw 'em rise 
 about a thousand yards off the bow, and just as 
 they got to us the whole school was just over the 
 mast-heads, or they'd have been killed by the 
 hundred. They made a whirr like just so many 
 birds, and I guess they must have gone a couple 
 of miles to leeward afore they struck water, for I 
 couldn't distinguish no splash, tho' I ran for the 
 glass and clapped it onto 'em as quick as I could. 
 
TI 5 A LANDLUBBER'S LOG OF 
 
 How many was there? Well, I should say four 
 or five thousand, and it's queer you didn't notice 
 the whirr they made." Then looking up in a 
 natural way, he suddenly exclaimed, " Well, blank 
 my eyes if one feller didn't run afoul of us, and 
 there the beggar is, a-stickin' head on into the 
 mizzen-royal yard, dead to windward ; see him ? 
 Here, Mike (to a sailor who was coiling down 
 some halliards), skip aloft there to the weather 
 end of the mizzen-royal, and fetch me that sky- 
 scraper wot's stickin' there. Look lively, now." 
 And the astonished tar after sighting the fish pro- 
 ceeded aloft, coming down again with a grin, which 
 showed that he saw the officer's racket as well as 
 I did. 
 
 " You see," said the second mate, as the sailor 
 handed him the fish, " these sky-scrapers looks 
 like the common kind, and it's not till you get to 
 know 'em that you can tell 'em apart, and as 
 they're not fit to eat like the reg'lar sort, I'll 
 chuck this feller overboard." And so saying, 
 overboard it went. 
 
HIS VOYAGE AROUND CAPE HORN. 
 
 117 
 
 Table for week ending September 28. 
 
 September 22. Lat. 30 i8 x S. Run 43 miles. 
 
 Lon. 88 40' W. Temp, at noon, 71. 
 
 Weather fine. Calms and light airs. 
 
 September 23. Lat. 29 30' S. Run 53 miles. 
 
 Lon. 88 32' W. Temp, at noon, 65. 
 
 Light showers during forenoon. Squalls all round the horizon. 
 
 September 24. Lat. 27 30' S. Run 132 miles. 
 
 Lon. 80 2<y W. Temp, at noon, 68. 
 
 Superfine day. 
 
 September 25. Lat. 26 22' S. Run 106 miles. 
 
 Lon. 90 30' W. Temp, at noon, 70. 
 
 Beautiful day. Got S. E. trade winds at 2 P.M. 
 
 September 26. Lat. 24 43' S. Run 124 miles. 
 
 Lon. 91 46' W. Temp, at noon, 70. 
 
 Weather fine. 
 
 September 27. Lat. 22 38' S. Run 156 miles. 
 
 Lon. 93 29' W. Temp, at noon, 71. 
 
 Weather fine. 
 
 September 28. Lat. 20 58' S. Run 156 miles. 
 
 Lon. 95 24' W. Temp, at noon, 73. 
 
 Slightly overcast. Water-spout. Light airs. Moonlight all the week. 
 
A LANDLUBBER'S LOG OF 
 
 Table for week ending October 5. 
 
 September 29. Lat. 20 07' S. Run 83 miles. 
 
 Lon. 96 2O 7 W. Temp, at noon, 75. 
 
 Overcast and squally. 
 
 / 
 
 September 30. Lat. 18 37' S. Run 116 miles. 
 
 Lon. 97 35' W. Temp, at noon, 73. 
 
 Fine day. Full moon. Beautiful evening. Not a cloud visible. 
 
 October I. Lat. 18 20' S. Run 109 miles. 
 
 Lon. 98 49 7 W. Temp, at noon, 73. 
 
 Beautiful day. Light airs. 
 
 October 2. Lat. 17 34' S. Run 86 miles. 
 
 Lon. 90 oc/ W. Temp, at noon, 73. 
 
 Weather fine. Light airs and calms all day. Dead calm all night. 
 Bright moon and cloudless sky. 
 
 October 3. Lat. 17 18' S. Run 21 miles. 
 
 Lon. 99 oi x W. Temp, at noon, 76. 
 
 Dead calm till 1 1 A.M., then very light airs. Heavy rain-squall and 
 fresh breeze at 2 P.M. 
 
 October 4. Lat. 15 2O / S. Run 115 miles. 
 
 Lon. 99 38' W. Temp, at noon, 74. 
 
 Rain-squalls all day. 
 
 October 5. Lat. 12 56' S. Run 1 80 miles. 
 
 Lon. 101 30-' W. Temp, at noon, 75. 
 Very fine day. 
 
HIS VOYAGE AROUND CAPE HORN. 
 
 119 
 
 AT SEA, SUNDAY, October 5. 
 
 Two most discouraging weeks have elapsed 
 since I made my last entry, and which I greatly 
 fear will prevent our passage getting down into 
 the teens, as we had confidently hoped. With an 
 ordinary chance we would have to-day been up 
 to the equator, but the siege of calms and light, 
 baffling winds we have undergone has retarded 
 us wofully, and from one hundred and twenty to 
 one hundred and twenty-five days will most likely 
 be our run, with a strong probability in favor of 
 the latter figure being most correct. The daily 
 runs marked down in the table must not be taken 
 as our real progress, as often they are beyond it. 
 They include all the tacks we make, and thus I 
 often put down fifty or sixty miles more than we 
 really proceed towards San Francisco. 
 
 The following are the incidents I have noted 
 down for the last two weeks : 
 
 
 
 September 22. During the morning one of the 
 sailors reported a boat drifting about to the east- 
 ward, and for a time there was quite a sensation 
 on board ; but at last the object turned out to be 
 a number of large brown birds sitting on the 
 water, and evidently feeding on something. Saw 
 a great many nautiluses. 
 
12Q A LANDLUBBER'S LOG OF 
 
 September 23. School of about a dozen right- 
 whales passed within quarter of a mile during 
 the forenoon. This species blow a high straight 
 stream, instead of the short puffs given by the 
 sperm-whales that we saw off Pernambuco, Brazil. 
 
 September 25. Second mate and one of the 
 sailors indulge in a short row ; one round fought, 
 resulting in victory for the second mate. 
 
 September 26. Slid down the fore-royal-stay. 
 
 September 28. Saw a water-spout form to the 
 northeast. It began by slowly descending in the 
 shape of an inverted cone, the end swaying from 
 side to side until near the surface, when a body 
 of water leaped up and joined it, and the whole 
 thing drifted off to the northeast. The phenom- 
 enon occurred during a calm and at sunset. Fly- 
 ing-fish about again. 
 
 October 3. Spent the afternoon shooting at 
 bottles towing astern. Saw a barkentine bound 
 south from California. 
 
 October 5. Flying-fish for breakfast. They are 
 very numerous, and can be caught at night by 
 hanging a fine net in the bowsprit rigging with a 
 lantern in it, which attracts the fish, and they fly 
 for it, and thus become entangled in the net. 
 Many thus caught are too small to cook. Sev- 
 eral "boson" birds about. These birds are the 
 size of a chicken, and are pure white with scarlet 
 beaks. In flying they have a very labored move- 
 
HIS VOYAGE AROUND CAPE 'HORN. I2 i 
 
 ment, seeming as though they were completely 
 tired out ; at night they often perch on the ends of 
 the yard-arms. They fly about as high as the tip 
 of the mast-heads, and never seem to go down to 
 the surface to feed. As they fly they utter the 
 most dismal noise I ever heard a bird let loose. 
 It sounds like a batch of weak puppies learning 
 to bark. The name " boson" is an abbreviation 
 of the word boatswain, and they are so called be- 
 cause they have a long, straight feather the shape 
 of a marline-spike sticking out behind their tails. 
 On shipboard the boatswain is the man who has 
 charge of the small gear, such as marline-spikes, 
 spun-yarn, etc. ; hence the bird's name. I have 
 not seen any since Monday afternoon, when we 
 attempted to shoot one and frightened them all 
 away. 
 
 After passing thirty degrees south we began to 
 expect the southeast trade winds, which generally 
 blow with great regularity from about that point up 
 to two or three degrees north of the equator. Once 
 in these, a captain need not trouble himself much, 
 for they blow steadily, and with very little variation 
 all the year round, and it is all fair sailing for days 
 and weeks without change. At 2 P.M. on the 26th 
 of September, in twenty-six degrees south, we ran 
 into them, and thought we were fixed at last for a 
 fine run to the northward, but after a day or so of 
 fair to middling breezes the wind failed us, and we 
 
 F II 
 
122 A LANDLUBBER'S LOG OF 
 
 have been progressing through the very heart of 
 the trade-wind region (when we should have been 
 reeling off over two hundred miles a day), with a 
 wretched chance up to yesterday afternoon, when 
 they began to blow in earnest, and as I write the 
 ship is again boiling along at a ten-knot rate, 
 splashing the lower deck with spray, and seeming 
 to enjoy the change as much as any of the officers 
 or men. The captain, whose disappointment at 
 being set back so is very great, is commencing to 
 smile again, and in fact all hands from the boy up 
 feel brighter, for there is nothing that grows so 
 tiresome as a long drawn out spell of calms or 
 baffling winds. 
 
 I will here note a few changes that have taken 
 
 o 
 
 place in my manner of passing time. I read a 
 great deal more than I did at first, and have pol- 
 ished off the entire series of the late Mr. Shak- 
 speare's writings, as well as several of Marryat's, 
 Cooper's, and Lever's novels, and a miscellaneous 
 assortment of history, travels, and science. Hav- 
 ing pretty well learned the ship from the end of 
 the jib-boom to the end of the spanker-boom, and 
 from main truck to keelson, I have stopped asking 
 questions and studying the rigging as for the first 
 two months at sea. Neither do I do as much 
 climbing as formerly, the novelty having worn off, 
 but when I do start aloft, I never stop short of the 
 royal yards, the highest possible perch. I remem- 
 
MIS VOYAGE AROUND CAPE NORN. I2 ^ 
 
 \J 
 
 her the first time I went aloft, I trembled so that I 
 was afraid I should fall, but now the main royal 
 yard feels as comfortable as the deck. Several 
 times I have climbed from the deck to the mast- 
 head without touching the regular ladders, and on 
 the 26th of September incurred the displeasure of 
 the captain for the first time, by sliding down the 
 fore-royal-stay in a moment of thoughtless bravado. 
 The fore-royal-stay is the rope extending from 
 the point of the bowsprit to the peak of the fore- 
 mast, and after I had started on my dangerous 
 journey I would have given worlds to have been 
 back on the royal yard, but it was go ahead or 
 nothing, and so I at last reached the point of the 
 jib-boom with well-torn clothes and nerves pretty 
 well unstrung. As I said before, I read more than 
 at first, and generally give the whole afternoon 
 
 to it, and often the evenings too. Mr. X 's 
 
 nightly performances on the mouth-organ are, how- 
 ever, rather discouraging to any one's attempt to 
 get interested in a book. He still continues to wade 
 through his tremendous supply of " New York 
 Weeklies," and takes his afternoon nap with clock- 
 like regularity. Although now three months out, 
 he is still in dense ignorance of anything about the 
 ship's rigging, in regard to either its name or use, 
 and I have no doubt he will continue in his indif- 
 ference to the end of the voyage. In some mat- 
 ters he is painfully green, and the second mate 
 
124 A LAN DL UBBER'S LOG OF 
 
 taking advantage of the fact, " stuffs" him fear- 
 fully, much to the delight of the mate, who is also 
 beginning to practise on his credulity. The other 
 day when we were shooting, Mr. X- - attempted 
 to load a shot-gun, and just as he was about to 
 take aim at a pigeon, the captain asked him how 
 much powder he had in the gun, as it was an old 
 one, and should not be loaded too heavily. This 
 led to an explanation on Mr. X- 's part, of the 
 ludicrous fact that he had put the powder and shot 
 in together, and then rammed them down without 
 any wad. He then said it had been some time 
 since he had been gunning ! 
 
 For the past two weeks the ship has been un- 
 dergoing her regular annual overhauling, and 
 although not yet finished is already vastly changed, 
 and in a short time she will look like a new ship. 
 Every mast, spar, and boom has been carefully 
 scraped, sand-papered, and oiled, and as most of 
 the sticks are of Oregon pine, a beautifully marked 
 and colored timber, the effect aloft is very hand- 
 some. The masts proper (i.e., the first or princi- 
 pal sticks) are scraped with regular cabinet- 
 scrapers as carefully as possible, and then sand- 
 papered, and given several coats of oil, after which 
 they are as smooth as satin. They are in one 
 piece, instead as is generally the case in large 
 ships being made of several separate pieces, in 
 which case they are called made masts. When 
 
HIS VOYAGE AROUND CAPE HORN. ^5 
 
 thus scraped and oiled they are as delicately 
 colored as a meerschaum pipe, and are truly 
 beautiful bits of timber. As a finishing touch, 
 they will be given a coat of varnish before going 
 into port. 
 
 The oil that is used on the yards is mixed with 
 rosin, which gives them a shining look when the 
 sun is out. All the rigging has been straightened 
 up and freshly tarred, and is as black and glisten- 
 ing as jet. The deck has been holystoned and 
 oiled, and now the paint-work all over the vessel 
 is undergoing a hard scrubbing, preparatory to 
 being repainted, which step, with a little extra 
 polishing on the brass-work, will complete the 
 transformation of the old ship into a new one, as 
 far as appearances are concerned. All the ships 
 going into San Francisco go through just this pro- 
 gramme, so that at that city you see them at their 
 best, and nowhere, according to the captain, are 
 the efforts of the captains in getting their ships 
 into first-class trim more appreciated. In our 
 case, no more care could be taken in the manner 
 the work is done if it was a gentleman's drawing- 
 room that was being overhauled. 
 
 ii* 
 
126 A LANDLUBBERS LOG OF 
 
 Table for week ending October 12. 
 
 October 6. Lat. 10 55' S. Run 160 miles. 
 
 Lon. 103 4<y W. Temp, at noon, 76. 
 
 Very fine day. " Bosons" numerous. 
 
 October 7. Lat. 8 52' S. Run 199 miles. 
 
 Lon. 1 06 21' W. Temp, at noon, 76. 
 
 Weather beautiful. 
 
 October 8. Lat. 6 18' S. Run 211 miles. 
 
 Lon. 109 04' W. Temp, at noon, 78. 
 
 Day fine. Very hot in sun. Heavy dew. 
 
 October 9. Lat. 4 03' S. Run 182 miles. 
 
 Lon. ill 04' W. Temp, at noon, 78. 
 
 Fine day. Very heavy dew after sunset. 
 
 October 10. Lat. 2 05' S. Run 157 miles. 
 
 Lon. 113 02' W. Temp, at noon, 76. 
 
 Fine day. Dew still very heavy at night. 
 
 October u. Lat. o 26' S. Run 122 miles. 
 
 Lon. 114 20' W. Temp, at noon, 75. 
 
 Beautiful day. Crossed the equator at 4.30 P.M. Very light breezes. 
 
 October 12. Lat. o 52' N. Run 97 miles. 
 
 Lon. 115 26' W. Temp, at noon, 73. 
 
 Overcast. Light airs. Saw north star again. 
 
 The ship crossed the line yesterday afternoon. Just ninety-five days 
 from Cape May, on longitude 114 40' W., after sailing thirteen thousand 
 five hundred and ninety miles, a daily average of a trifle over one hun- 
 dred and forty-three miles, or about six knots an hour. The run from 
 50 S. occupied thirty-one days, which is behind the average by several 
 days. This was caused by an unexpected amount of calms, and the very 
 weak character of the southeast trade winds. 
 
HIS VOYAGE AROUND CAPE HORN. 
 
 AT SEA, SUNDAY, October 12. 
 
 OVER the equator at last, and the fifth, or con- 
 cluding, stage of the voyage begun. There is 
 something very satisfactory in crossing this im- 
 aginary line, and in knowing that the voyage is 
 actually drawing to a close. Not that I'm in any 
 particular hurry to get ashore, or tired of the life 
 at sea ; but then you can get too much of even a 
 good thing, and after more than a month longer 
 of this lazy humdrum life I feel certain I should 
 
 begin to fret. Mr. X has been growling on 
 
 the subject for a week back. 
 
 I will have quite enough to keep me just pleas- 
 antly busy during the next four weeks in finishing 
 up my journal, letters, and charts. By that time 
 we hope to be safely made fast to a San Francisco 
 wharf. This week I have to record a most painful 
 and tragic event, the first accident of the voyage. 
 I allude to the drowning, on Tuesday, October 7, 
 of one of the sailors, a man much liked on board, 
 and who, poor fellow, was taking his last voyage 
 before settling down with his family and friends in 
 one of the Western States ; it has indeed proved 
 to be his last, but in a way he little expected. He 
 was a man I mentioned as being quite a good 
 
I2 g A LANDLUBBER'S LOG OF 
 
 barber ; he probably did his last job in that line 
 when he cut my hair two weeks ago to-day. While 
 doing so he told me that he had been at sea sev- 
 eral years, but was as poor as when he started, 
 and that on reaching 'Frisco he intended leaving 
 the sea to go and work on the farm of a relative 
 in Wisconsin. 
 
 October 7. This has been a most eventful day, 
 and one that will remain impressed on my mem- 
 ory for a long time. When the captain went on 
 deck about six o'clock he caught one of the 
 sailors a Swede called " Charley," who is as 
 surly a looking fellow as one could imagine 
 pouring turpentine over the little tomcat, much 
 to the disgust of the poor beast, which was moan- 
 ing pitifully. The captain came very near strik- 
 ing the man, so incensed was he ; but there being 
 several other sailors in sight he didn't care to 
 make an exhibition, so merely ordered the man 
 to wash pussy in soap and water, and to do 
 double duty all day, that is, not to turn in when 
 his watch did, but work with both watches. At 
 breakfast we were discussing the rascally act, and 
 the mate quietly made up his mind to give Mr. 
 Charley a licking ; so after breakfast he went for- 
 ward, called the culprit into the carpenter-shop, 
 and there proceeded to give him a thorough good 
 thrashing, during which the man bellowed like 
 a two-horse-power calf. The funny side of the 
 
HIS VOYAGE AROUND CAPE HORN. 
 
 incident was that a poor Dutchman called Hans, 
 who has about as much sense as a piece of putty, 
 on hearing Charlie's yells came running aft, think- 
 ing that some one had fallen from aloft, and the 
 second mate, supposing he was going to pitch into 
 the mate, let poor innocent Hans have a rap on 
 the jaw that rather surprised him, and without 
 waiting to see what the matter was, " Dutchy" 
 scuttled back into the fo'castle as fast as he could. 
 At a quarter-past ten o'clock, as I was sitting 
 in the captain's cabin writing, I heard shouting on 
 the deck, and at first supposed the fight was being 
 renewed. Running 1 out, I saw the entire crew 
 
 o 
 
 leaning over the weather-rail, shouting and ges- 
 ticulating, and I of course knew that some one was 
 overboard. As I reached the side the man swept 
 past, holding on to a rope. The ship was running 
 very fast and the sea was quite rough, so that the 
 strain on the man's strength must have been ter- 
 rible. The captain instantly ordered the helm 
 " hard down," as the man was to windward, and 
 " Chips" and I helped the helmsman to roll the 
 wheel down. By the time the ship came up into 
 the wind, which she did very quickly, the poor 
 fellow's strength was exhausted, and from the 
 starboard quarter he could be seen some ten feet 
 under water towing feet foremost, the rope hav- 
 ing become tangled about his legs before he 
 could get loose from it. For some time it was 
 
A LANDLUBBER'S LOG OF 
 
 impossible to get hold of the line he was attached 
 to, as it ran from out on the jib-boom down under 
 the vessel and was fouled there, so that for at 
 least five minutes after the ship was stopped the 
 body hung suspended in the water. At last, after 
 several violent efforts, the line was shaken loose of 
 the keel and the body slowly and carefully hauled 
 alongside, just forward of the main shrouds. The 
 line had by this time slipped clown, and was only 
 tangled about one foot. Taking with him a rope's 
 end made into a noose, one of the sailors lowered 
 himself over the side and made it fast to the body, 
 which was then gently hoisted to the rail and laid 
 on the deck. For nearly three hours the captain 
 and men worked to restore the poor fellow to 
 life, adopting the methods given in the book is- 
 sued by the United States Life-Saving Station, 
 but without success. The dreadful wrenching the 
 body had undergone while towing under the 
 quarter had extinguished every spark of life, 
 even if the water had not. The body was rubbed 
 and chafed to give it warmth, various movements 
 calculated to start respiration were kept up the 
 whole time ; hartshorn was applied to the nos- 
 trrls, and hot-water bottles under the armpits and 
 to the feet. At half-past one, not the slightest 
 signs of returning life being noticed, the attempt 
 was given up and the body was taken forward 
 under the top-gallant fo'castle. It seems that the 
 
HIS VOYAGE AROUND CAPE HORN. 
 
 man had been painting one of the forward stays, 
 and having finished the job was coming in over 
 the jib-boom, with the line to which he was sus- 
 pended still fastened around his waist. This line 
 ran from the deck up over the fore-royal yard and 
 down the stay to where the man was working, 
 being there attached to a kind of sling called a 
 " boatswain's chair," in which the man sat while 
 at work. 
 
 As he painted the stay he called out when he 
 wished to be lowered farther down, and another 
 sailor on deck eased off some more line, making 
 fast again when the painter gave the signal. The 
 deck end of the line ran out of a coil of rope, 
 and, when the painting was finished, the fastening 
 was taken off, so that it would run out freely as 
 the man came in from the end of the jib-boom. 
 When about half-way in, he slipped and fell over- 
 board, and the line running freely from the coil 
 on deck (which was a very long one), he would 
 have been enabled to drift along astern, and dis- 
 entangle himself from the " boson's chair," had 
 not a sailor on deck very naturally stopped the 
 running line, and commenced hauling in on it. 
 When all the slack already loose had run out, 
 and before the poor fellow had got loose from the 
 " chair," he was suddenly brought up with a very 
 violent jerk, and probably lost consciousness at 
 that moment. Had he managed to get free be- 
 
132 
 
 A LANDLUBBERS LOG OF 
 
 fore being thus wrenched, he would in all prob- 
 ability have been saved, for he could swim, and the 
 life-buoys were in readiness to be thrown to him 
 as he came astern. The sea was also in a per- 
 fectly safe condition to launch a boat. 
 
 During the afternoon the body was dressed and 
 wrapped up in two old blankets that were found 
 in his chest. Over these his hammock was se- 
 curely sewed, a large bagful of iron being fast- 
 ened inside at his feet, and the whole thing tightly 
 bound around with tarred rope-yarn. At five 
 o'clock all hands were called to the main deck, the 
 main yard was backed, bringing the ship to a 
 stand-still, and the body, covered with an Amer- 
 ican ensign, laid out on a large plank, which was 
 placed on the main hatch. All hands standing- 
 uncovered, the captain read a chapter from the 
 Bible appropriate to the occasion, and part of 
 the burial service for funerals at sea, and then 
 at a signal the flag was taken off, the body was 
 slowly carried to the port side and launched over- 
 board from the plank, just opposite to where it had 
 been hauled on board in the morning. A minute 
 
 o 
 
 later the yard was swung around, the sails began 
 to fill away, and soon we were again ploughing 
 along, the beautiful afternoon and bright appear- 
 ance on the ship seeming in ill keeping with the 
 solemn ceremony that had just been performed. 
 According to the ship's articles, the man's name 
 
HIS VOYAGE AROUND CAPE HORN. 
 
 was George Holgerson, a native of Denmark ; on 
 board he was called " Frank." He was in the 
 mate's watch, and was a favorite with the other 
 sailors, who seemed very sorry at his death. 
 
 Since the " Pactolus" was launched, fifteen years 
 ago, this is but the second man ever lost out of 
 her, the first being a steward, who fell overboard 
 in a gale of wind off Staten Land, the place we 
 passed September i. That happened some ten 
 years ago. 
 
 October 9. Flying-fish around in countless 
 thousands. 
 
 October 10. The huge schools of flying-fish 
 continue to remain in company, and I never tire 
 watching their sharp flights through the air. 
 
 October \ i. Crossed the equator bound north. 
 Schools of bonitas under the bows all the fore- 
 noon. These fish are about as big as a large 
 shad, and are exceedingly pretty. They are 
 brightly colored, the tints being blue and pink, 
 but not so brilliant as the dolphins. While sit- 
 ting on the upper foretop-sail yard during the 
 afternoon, I saw a sperm-whale blow once or 
 twice, and then fluke or dive. This was Mr. 
 
 X 's birthday, and the captain burned some 
 
 blue-lights in the evening in honor of the occa- 
 sion, making a very pretty effect. 
 
 October 12. This afternoon saw two large tur- 
 tles lying on the surface of the water fast asleep. 
 
 12 
 
134 
 
 A LANDLUBBER'S LOG OF 
 
 They are numerous about here, being carried out 
 by the current from the Galapagos Islands, a group 
 that belongs to Equador, and lies on the equator 
 in longitude 80 west. These islands are cele- 
 brated for the vast numbers of turtles found 
 there. In fact, I believe the name means the 
 Tortoise Archipelago. If it had been calm we 
 should have got a boat over and caught one, for 
 they are very tame ; but while we have the slight- 
 est breeze the captain won't hear of stopping. 
 This is a great pity, for they were splendid big 
 fellows, and would have made an alderman's 
 mouth water. Also saw a school of albacores, 
 a large fish something like a porpoise, only much 
 quicker in their movements ; they go along like 
 an express-train, jumping far out of water every 
 little while. As I am finishing this the mate calls 
 down that the north star is in sight. We are a 
 week behind the time I gave for seeing it again, 
 when we crossed the equator bound south. 
 
HIS VOYAGE AROUND CAPE HORN. 
 
 Table for iveek ending October 19. 
 
 October 13. Lat. 2 43' N. Run 128 miles. 
 
 Lon. 117 O3 / W. Temp, at noon, 76. 
 
 Fine clay. 
 
 October 14. Lat. 4 49' N. Run 132 miles. 
 
 Lon. 118 12' W. Temp at noon, 78. 
 
 Fine day. Hot in sun. Very light breezes. 
 
 * 
 
 October 15. Lat. 6 o8 x N. Run 97 miles. 
 
 Lon. 118 23' W. Temp, at noon, 80. 
 
 Lost S. E. trades in 6 15' N., and got into the doldrums ! Hot ! 
 
 October 1 6. Lat. 7 22' N. Run 92 miles. 
 
 Lon. 1 1 8 40' W. Temp, at noon, 84. 
 
 Dead calm. Rain at intervals. Very hot. Ship becalmed in trough 
 of sea all night, rolling badly. One hundredth day at sea. 
 
 October 17. Lat. 7 34' N. Run 6 miles. 
 
 Lon. 118 30' \V. Temp, at noon, 82. 
 
 Calm. Hot. Very hard rain-squalls towards evening. Dolphins about 
 in large numbers. 
 
 October 18. Lat. 8 14' N. Run 48 miles. 
 
 Lon. 118 39 X W. Temp, at noon, 84. 
 
 Calm all day. Very hot. Porpoises about ; also sharks ; caught one. 
 Torrents of rain in the afternoon, and all night. Several stiff" squalls, and 
 sharp lightning during the night (no thunder). Sea very rough and ugly. 
 
 October 19. Lat. 9 21 ' N. Run 80 miles. 
 
 Lon. 118 4<y W. Temp, at noon, 82. 
 
 Overcast, with much rain. Sea running high. Very squally towards 
 evening. " Dirty" night. 
 
 Doldrums ! doldrums !! DOLDRUMS ! ! ! and the passage hopelessly spoiled. 
 The ocean currents are very strong down here ; for instance, on the 1 3th 
 we had a lift of eighty-four miles to the westward by the current alone. I 
 have enjoyed the rains very much, skipping about the decks in a bathing- 
 suit. 
 
A LANDLUBBER'S LOG OF 
 
 AT SEA, October 19. 
 
 WE have certainly had very poor luck this side 
 of " the Cape," and the past week has been about 
 the worst of the voyage. Several times during 
 the week the ship lost 'steerage-way, and help- 
 lessly rolled about in the trough of the sea. 
 
 October 13. Saw a man-of-war hawk, a large 
 bird looking like an eagle, and having the same 
 flight. 
 
 October 15. My twenty-first birthday. 
 
 October 16. One hundredth day out. Saw five 
 turtles, and a ship bound south from San Fran- 
 cisco. She was too far away to go to her, or we 
 would have lowered a boat and gone after some 
 newspapers. 
 
 October 17. Made six miles by sailing, and 
 drifted ten more. Two turtles and many dol- 
 phins. The latter would not bite to-day. Have 
 got the harpoon ready, should a turtle float wjthin 
 range. 
 
 October 18. Porpoises about all day. They 
 are so lazy that they only float about, instead of 
 playing and jumping in their usual way. Several 
 very ugly sharks astern. Caught one on our big 
 hook, which is a foot long. He was the smallest 
 
HIS VOYAGE AROUND CAPE HORN. 
 
 of the lot, and also the greediest. Measured seven 
 feet nine inches. Had a steak for tea. It tasted 
 like a quinine pill. Very disagreeable night. 
 
 Mr. B showed me his tattooing the other 
 
 day. He is a regular walking art-gallery. The 
 designs on his arms are very elaborate, full- 
 rigged ships, arms of all nations, flags, initials, etc. 
 
 On my birthday we had two small bottles of 
 " Roederer" for dinner, to drink to the health of 
 those at home, who would, I was quite sure, be 
 doing the same in honor of the event, and in the 
 evening launched a flaming tar-barrel overboard. 
 The effect was very good as it rose and fell on 
 the waves. During the rains of the week we 
 have filled every spare barrel and cask on board. 
 
 Since writing the above, the man sent aloft just 
 before sunset reported a vessel over the starboard 
 bow. On going aloft with a glass I found her to 
 be a full-rigged ship with main skysail yard. A 
 moment later saw another, same size and rig, in 
 the same direction. They are now ten miles 
 ahead. We feel sure one is our old friend and 
 rival, the " Spinney." The night is very dirty- 
 looking, with rough cross-sea and squalls. 
 
 12* 
 
138 
 
 A LANDLUBBER'S LOG OF 
 
 Table for week ending October 26. 
 
 October 20. Lat. 10 17' N. Run 93 miles. 
 
 Lon. 119 03' W. Temp, at noon, 82. 
 
 Weather very fine. Moderate "trades." 
 
 October 21. Lat. 11 26' N. Run 118 miles. 
 
 Lon. 120 3<y W. Temp, at noon, 83. 
 
 Beautiful day. Heavy head-sea. 
 
 October 22. Lat. 13 i6 / N. Run 134 miles. 
 
 Lon. 121 56' W. Temp, at noon, 82. 
 
 Beautiful day. Flying-fish very numerous. 
 
 October 23 Lat. 15 29' N. Run 167 miles. 
 
 Lon. 123 19' W. Temp, at noon, 82. 
 
 Weather fine. Fresh " trades." 
 
 October 24. Lat. 18 39' N. Run 219 miles. 
 
 Lon. 125 10' W. Temp, at noon, 77. 
 
 Overcast and damp. Very fresh trades. Head-sea from N. W. build- 
 ing up all day. Very rough all night. Much water coming over the rail. 
 
 October 25. Lat. 21 28' N. Run 224 miles. 
 
 Lon. 127 35' W. Temp, at noon, 71. 
 
 Overcast and damp. Breeze fresh and strong. Sea rough all day. 
 Towards evening and all night much increased, and ship pitching directly 
 into it. At 7 P.M. split main top-gallant-sail in a squall. 
 
 October 26. Lat. 23 39' N. Run 182 miles. 
 
 Lon. 129 38' W. Temp, at noon, 70. 
 
 Overcast and gloomy. Sea more moderate. Very damp all clay. The 
 early part of the past week was extra fine, the evenings being moonlight 
 and the sea smooth. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday a great change for 
 the worse. Sailed this week eleven hundred and thirty- seven miles. 
 Daily average one hundred and sixty-one and three-sevenths miles. 
 
HIS VOYAGE AROUND CAPE HORN. 
 
 139 
 
 AT SEA, SUNDAY, October 26. 
 
 ELEVEN hundred and thirty-seven miles of briny 
 deep left astern since noon of last Sunday, and 
 at that hour to-day the fort at the entrance to San 
 Francisco harbor bears N. 31 E. eight hundred 
 and forty miles. To make those eight hundred 
 and forty miles will, however, be a slow job, and 
 we are likely to sail twice that far before the coast 
 of California looms up and shows us that the 
 passage is ended. It is well that the voyage is 
 nearly over, for I would have to begin wearing 
 my better clothes very soon, the old ones are lit- 
 erally in rags. Sculling about aloft is very hard 
 on clothes, and wears them out almost as fast as 
 you can mend them. My mending is very artistic 
 and quite picturesque, but would hardly pass cur- 
 rent on shore. I have one pair of trowsers of a 
 brown color that are patched with white canvas, 
 and a gray pair with a dark-blue seat and a strip 
 of red about the left knee. I have also had to 
 sew on lots of buttons, and though the work is not 
 very beautifully done, I'll warrant the buttons won't 
 drop off in a hurry. The steward would do this 
 for me if I wanted him to, but I do it to help pass 
 away the time. 
 
 October 20. The two ships that so suddenly 
 
140 
 
 A LANDLUBBER'S LOG OF 
 
 appeared yesterday afternoon were nowhere to 
 be seen to-day, nor have we sighted them since. 
 
 October 21. I spent the entire forenoon on the 
 main royal yard, from which perch you can see 
 about thirty miles each way, or an entire degree, 
 I mean, of course, when the weather is perfectly 
 clear, and while there discovered a large English 
 iron ship, bound south. She passed about fifteen 
 miles to the westward of us. Also saw a really 
 monstrous hammer-head shark. The rascal nearly 
 chewed our patent log out of shape. 
 
 October 22. The flying-fish were about all day 
 in vast numbers, but were very small ones. They 
 rise on each side of and in front of the ship, and 
 fly about one hundred and fifty feet before diving 
 down. It looks as though a discharge of grape- 
 shot from a man-of-war had been fired. I hap- 
 pened to remark to the second mate that the fish 
 were very numerous, when he gravely informed 
 me, backing up the assertion with a choice sea 
 oath, that on one occasion he had seen the flying- 
 fish so thick that he had put on a pair of snow- 
 shoes and walked a mile and a half from the ship 
 on their backs, and that the fish suddenly disap- 
 pearing he came mighty near being drowned be- 
 fore he got back. Also saw several large gulls, 
 and a big bird called a booby roosted all night on 
 one of the upper yards. Made out a ship bound 
 north, twenty-five miles to the westward. Only 
 
HIS VOYAGE AROUND CAPE HORN. 
 
 could make out 'her royals and top-gallant-sails ; 
 saw her for about two hours ; it then grew hazy 
 and we lost her. 
 
 October 25. To-night reminds me of that on 
 which we came into the Pacific, the wind being 
 the same, and also the sea and clouds scudding 
 over the moon. At seven o'clock on this evening 
 our main top-gallant-sail split into ribbons during 
 a squall. 
 
 October 26. To-day we ran into the latitude of 
 the United States. Our time is about three and 
 a half hours behind that in Philadelphia. There 
 is a large ugly bird flying about called a gonez; 
 they are very numerous a little farther north. 
 The Cape pigeons, greedy as they are, do not 
 begin to be as piggish as these fellows and are no 
 tamer. Saw a large log and a stump floating in 
 the sea. These somewhat dangerous obstacles 
 float down from the lumber ports of California 
 and Oregon. Dolphins about the bows all the 
 morning. 
 
A LANDLUBBER'S LOG OF 
 
 Table for week ending November 2. 
 
 October 27. Lat. 24 49' N. Run 108 miles. 
 
 Lon. 131 02' W. Temp, at noon, 69. 
 
 Damp and gloomy. Light airs. High northerly swell. 
 
 October 28. Lat. 25 23' N. Run 46 miles. 
 
 Lon. 131 25' W. Temp, at noon, 70. 
 
 Fine day. Exquisite moonlight night. Dead calm all day and most all 
 night. 
 
 October 29. Lat. 25 33' N. Run 16 miles. 
 
 Lon. 131 28' W. Temp, at noon, 69. 
 
 Pleasant. Full moon. Dead calm all A.M. Light airs after I P.M. 
 
 October 30. Lat. 26 08' N. Run 77 miles. 
 
 Lon. 130 22 / W. Temp, at noon, 68. 
 
 Pleasant. Very light breeze all day. 
 
 October 31. Lat. 26 40' N. Run 35 miles. 
 
 Lon. 130 34' W. Temp, at noon, 69. 
 
 Very hazy all day. Dead calm, and no steerage-way until about 9 P.M. 
 Heavy dew. Light breeze all night. 
 
 November i. Lat. 27 13' N. Run 32 miles. 
 
 Lon. 130 21 x W. Temp, at noon, 72. 
 
 Fine. Begins with dead calm. Light breeze at 2 P.M., gradually fresh- 
 ening to moderate. 
 
 November 2. Lat. 29 06' N. Run 116 miles. 
 
 Lon. 130 O2 X W. Temp, at noon, 70. 
 
 Fine. Breeze steady all day, but failed in evening. Heavy westerly 
 swell. Ship rolling badly all afternoon and night. Sailed by log four 
 hundred and thirty miles, a daily average of only sixty-one and three- 
 sevenths miles. Hard luck. Farallones Rocks twenty-five miles from San 
 Francisco. Bore six hundred and seventeen miles off at noon to-day. A 
 three days' run if we had the breeze. The moonlight was very beautiful 
 this week, the moon being full on Wednesday. 
 
HIS VOYAGE AROUND CAPE HORN. 
 
 AT SEA, SUNDAY, November 2. 
 
 SURELY there is some truth in that celebrated 
 rhyme "The Ancient Mariner," and we should 
 have taken heed from it and not caught the alba- 
 tross, in the South Pacific. It is, I fear, in punish- 
 ment for that slaughter we are now suffering this 
 tremendous amount of calms. The week just 
 passed should have been all breezes, according to 
 the charts ; but, although the ship did her best, we 
 only had wind enough to paddle along at the rate 
 of sixty-one miles a day. Buooft Libi 
 
 I suppose this will be our last Sunday at sea. 
 'Frisco is to-day only a little over six hundred 
 miles off, and surely we'll scramble along over 
 that in a week ; for the farther north we proceed 
 the stronger will we find the wind. There is 
 nothing more to be done to the ship. From end 
 to end, alow and aloft, she shines like a new pin, 
 and reflects great credit on the captain and mate 
 for the pains they have taken to get her so. Only 
 let us beat the " Spinney" and the captain will be 
 satisfied, although the great delays we have had 
 on this side of Cape Horn have wofully disap- 
 pointed him. Had we doubled our run to that 
 point (and we were confident of doing so), last 
 
144 
 
 A LANDLUBBER'S LOG OF 
 
 Wednesday, the 29th, would have found us made 
 fast to a San Francisco wharf. When sailors get 
 impatient at the delays caused by calms, they have 
 various ways of dispelling the charm and releas- 
 ing the ship. Some believe in sticking a knife in 
 the forward side of the mainmast, some in going 
 aloft and casting a lock of hair away, and others 
 in throwing overboard some article of clothing as 
 an offering to old /Eolus, the god of the winds. 
 The latter way is by far the most popular, and 
 during the last week has been liberally practised. 
 Old trowsers, shirts, boots, and hats have been 
 thrown overboard in profusion, but the total value 
 of the lot would not probably exceed twenty-five 
 cents. I joined the sacrificing band, and got rid 
 of an old pair of slippers and a pair of ragged 
 shoes. There is no danger of any one adopting 
 the first method. The captain would pass sen- 
 tence of death on any fellow who stuck a knife in 
 the mainmast in its present splendid condition. 
 
 October 28. Large log covered with barnacles 
 and surrounded by dolphins floated by us in the 
 afternoon. 
 
 October 29. Spent the afternoon shooting at 
 the gonies with the captain's rifle. N. G. (No 
 gonies and no good.) 
 
 October 30. To-day the drowned sailor's chest 
 and clothes were sold by auction to the crew. 
 The money realized (eight dollars and seventy- 
 
HIS VOYAGE AROUND CAPE HORN. 
 
 five cents) is handed to the United States ship- 
 ping commissioner at San Francisco, if the ship 
 or captain has no claims against the amount. 
 
 The idea of being so close to 'Frisco, where I'll 
 find a bunch of letters, is delightful, but is tinged 
 with a slight feeling of anxiety, for I have been 
 literally out of the world for four whole months. 
 
 3 
 
A LANDLUBBER'S LOG OF 
 
 Table for week ending November 9. 
 
 November 3. Lat. 30 26' N. Run 80 miles. 
 
 Lon. 129 39' W. Temp, at noon, 72. 
 
 Light airs and pleasant. High swell from northwest. Ship rolling 
 heavily. 
 
 November 4. Lat. 31 26' N. Run 65 miles. 
 
 Lon. 129 21' W. Temp, at noon, 68. 
 
 Calm at first ; gentle breezes later on. Clear and cold. Nautiluses very 
 numerous. Gonies ditto, and also very hungry and fierce; caught several 
 and let them go. 
 
 November 5. Lat. 33 29' N. Run 137 miles. 
 
 Lon. 128 44/ W. Temp, at noon, 67. 
 
 Gentle to moderate breeze. Sea rough. Heavy rain and squalls all 
 night. Sea increasing rapidly and very rough. Ship diving in. 
 
 November 6. Lat. 34 39' N. Run 167 miles. 
 
 Lon. 126 13' W. Temp, at noon, 61. 
 
 Variable weather. Wind fresh to very strong. Head-sea, rough and 
 ugly. Ship pitching badly. Moderate gale all night. 
 
 November 7. Lat. 35 37' N. Run -134 miles. 
 
 Lon. 124 oi 7 W. Temp, at noon, 58. 
 
 Chilly and raw. Moderate gale all A.M. ; then strong breeze till 10 
 P.M. Sea choppy and rough. Short sail. Heavy squalls and stiff winds 
 all night. 
 
 November 8. Lat. 36 52' N. Run 119 miles. 
 
 Lon. 123 io r W. Temp, at noon, 58. 
 
 A.M., overcast and damp. Breeze more moderate. Sea lower. P.M., 
 heavy gale, with much rain. Tremendous sea from southeast. 
 
 November 9Lat. | Nottaken . Run- I Not taken. 
 
 Lon. j Temp, at noon, j 
 
 A.M., thick and rainy. Very high rough sea. Decks constantly flooded. 
 Sighted Californian coast at I P.M. All O. K. in San Francisco harbor 
 5 P-M. 
 
VOYAGE AROUND CAPE HORN. 
 
 147 
 
 AT SEA, SUNDAY, November 9. 
 
 November 4. Gonies about in large numbers ; 
 hooked about half a dozen and then let them go. 
 Also fished up several nautiluses. 
 
 November 6. Saw a large iron ship, bound 
 south ; also a small schooner, bound in. The 
 latter was having a very wet time of it. A duck 
 that had evidently been blown off shore tried to 
 get on board in the afternoon, but failed, as the 
 wind was blowing a gale and carried it away to 
 leeward. Saw a whale blow to windward at 1 1 A.M. 
 
 November 8. 12 M., great many gulls about, 
 showing our proximity to the coast. During the 
 forenoon made anchors ready to let go. Too 
 thick and hazy to see land. Made out land very 
 dimly at 3.30 P.M. Calm from twelve to four. 
 Barometer falling rapidly. At four, wind came 
 out moderate from southeast. From 10 P.M. to 
 6 A.M., November 9, heavy gale and tremendous 
 sea from southeast; raining in torrents and blacker 
 than pitch. Ship laboring heavily ; split foresail 
 during violent squall. During the night were 
 within ten miles of San Francisco bar and six 
 miles of the coast. 
 
 November 9. Began with heavy squalls of rain 
 
A LANDLUBBER'S LOG OF 
 
 and tremendous sea. Ship tossing very badly. 
 Weather cold, raw, and foggy. At 7 A.M. saw 
 light on South Farallone. At 10 A.M. saw a large 
 ship through the fog. A few minutes later fog 
 scaled, and we sighted Farallone Islands four 
 miles to the northwest. Stood in and made out 
 coast at i P.M. Saw pilot-boats coming out at 2 
 P.M. Took pilot out of boat No. 10 (the " Con- 
 fidence"), and passed Golden Gate at 4.40 P.M., 
 just exactly one hundred and twenty-four days 
 from Cape May. Ran in harbor, and dropped 
 anchor off Telegraph Hill at 5.15 P.M. Were 
 boarded by reporter and harbor police, also 
 by thirty-seven sailor's boarding-house runners. 
 Found that the "Spinney" had been in forty- 
 eight hours, which makes our passage three days 
 the best, and the second best so far of the year. 
 On board all night. Were followed in by the 
 ship we saw in the morning, an Englishman from 
 New South Wales, Australia. 
 
 The storm with which our long voyage was 
 brought to a close was oddly enough, while it 
 lasted, the fiercest of the whole voyage, and one 
 of the most violent ever recorded on the coast of 
 California. The barometer sank lower in San 
 Francisco than it had for sixteen years, and the 
 wind played tremendous havoc among the ship- 
 ping in the harbor. At i A.M. on the morning of 
 the Qth I was awakened by the fearful rolling of 
 
HIS VOYAGE AROUND CAPE HORN. 
 
 149 
 
 the ship, and slipping on my bad-weather toggery, 
 went forward through the cabins, meaning to go 
 on the main deck. On forcing open the door 
 a volume of water rushed in, upsetting me and 
 flooding the forward cabin knee-deep before I 
 could get the door closed. Much astonished at 
 this unexpected bath, I gained the quarter-deck 
 by way of the companion-way, where I found the 
 scene a most terrific one ; the ship half hidden in 
 the clouds of flying spray which the wind whisked 
 off the tops of the mountainous waves and drove 
 across the swimming decks, was almost completely 
 denuded of canvas and looked in more distress 
 than I had ever seen her. For a while it looked 
 as if we were destined to the delay of having to 
 run out to sea again, but after fighting on for 
 several hours the gale broke suddenly, and a shift 
 of wind rapidly lowered the sea. Then as the 
 storm cleared away the wind came out fresh and 
 strong from the northwest, a quarter which exactly 
 suited us, and so with every rag set and drawing, 
 from the courses to the royals, we made our final 
 dash in glorious style, passing the Golden Gate 
 just as the setting sun burst through the angry 
 clouds, and bathed its frowning portals in a flood 
 of golden light. 
 
 Thus ends the passage of one hundred and 
 twenty-four days. The good ship has done well, 
 and although it is much longer than we expected 
 
 13* 
 
A LANDLUBBER'S LOG. 
 
 to be after our fine run to Cape Horn, still the 
 passage is decidedly a good one. In no single 
 instance has any vessel outsailed us, although we 
 have repeatedly come up with and sunk vessels 
 astern. On the whole voyage we did not sight a 
 steamer. I find on conning over this log that it 
 is decidedly rose-colored, that is to say, I've taken 
 the best possible look at everything, but have put 
 down very few of the inconveniences of life at 
 sea, and this fact proves that I've enjoyed myself, 
 for otherwise I should have taken advantage of 
 anything which warranted a growl. Here then I 
 stop, letting go anchor in San Francisco harbor. 
 May the " Pactolus" and her officers see many 
 more such voyages as this has been, and may I 
 find the journey " 'round the world" as pleasant 
 as that around the " Horn" ! 
 
 THE END. 
 
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