A steady, though light southwesterly wind carried us well off from the island, and when I came on deck for the middle watch I could just distinguish it from its hiding a few low stars in the southern horizon, though my unpracticed eyes would hardly have known it for land. At the close of the watch a few trade wind clouds which had arisen, though we were hardly yet in their latitude, shut it out from our view, and the next day,
Thursday, Nov. 27th, upon coming on deck in the morning, we were again upon the wide Pacific, and saw no more land until we arrived upon the western coast of the great continent of America.
VIII
“Tarring down”—Daily life—“Going aft”—California.
As we saw neither land nor sail from the time of leaving Juan Fernandez until our arrival in California, nothing of interest occurred except our own doing on board. We caught the southeast trades, and run before them for nearly three weeks, without so much as altering a sail or bracing a yard. The captain took advantage of this fine weather to get the vessel in order for coming upon the coast. The carpenter was employed in fitting up a part of the steerage into a trade room; for our cargo, we now learned, was not to be landed, but to be sold by retail from on board; and this trade room was built for the samples and the lighter goods to be kept in, and as a place for the general business. In the meantime we were employed in working upon the rigging. Everything was set up taut, the lower rigging92 rattled down,93 or rather rattled up (according to the modern fashion), an abundance of spun yarn and seizing stuff made, and finally, the whole standing rigging, fore and aft, was tarred down. This was my first essay at this latter business, and I had enough of it; for nearly all of it came upon my friend S⸺ and myself. The men were needed at the other work, and M⸺, the other young man who came out with us, was laid up with the rheumatism in his feet, and the boy was rather too young and small for the business; and as the winds were light and regular, he was kept during most of the daytime at the helm; so that nearly all the tarring came upon us. We put on short duck frocks, and taking a small bucket of tar and a bunch of oakum in our hands we went aloft, one at the main royal masthead and the other at the fore, and began tarring down. This is an important operation, and is usually done about once in six months in vessels upon a long voyage. It was done in our vessel several times afterwards, but by the whole crew at once, and finished off in a day; but at this time, as most of it came upon two of us, and we were new at the business, it took us several days. In this operation they always begin at the masthead and work down, tarring the shrouds, backstays, standing parts of the lifts, the ties, runners, etc., and go out to the yardarms, and come in, tarring, as they come, the lifts and footropes. Tarring the stays is more difficult, and is done by an operation which the sailors call “riding down.”94 A long piece of rope—topgallant studding sail halyards, or something of the kind—is taken up to the masthead from which the stay leads, and rove through a block for a girtline, or, as the sailors usually call it, a gantline; with the end of this a bowline is taken round the stay, into which the man gets with his bucket of tar and a bunch of oakum, and the other end being fast on deck, with someone to tend it, he is lowered down gradually, and tars the stay carefully as he goes. There he “sings aloft ’twixt heaven and earth,” and if the rope slips, breaks, or is let go, or if the bowline slips, he falls overboard or breaks his neck. This, however, is a thing which never enters into a sailor’s calculation. He thinks only of leaving no holidays (places not tarred), for in case he should, he would have to go over the whole again; or of dropping no tar upon deck, for then there would be a soft word in his ear from the mate. In this manner I tarred down all the head stays, but found the rigging about the jibbooms, martingale, and spritsail yard, upon which I was afterwards put, the hardest. Here you have to hang on with your eyelids and tar with your hands.
This dirty work could not last forever, and on Saturday night we finished it, scraped all the spots from the deck and rails, and, what was of more importance to us, cleaned ourselves thoroughly, rolled up our tarry frocks and trousers and laid them away for the next occasion, and put on our clean duck clothes, and had a good comfortable sailor’s Saturday night. The next day was pleasant, and indeed we had but one unpleasant Sunday during the whole voyage, and that was off Cape Horn, where we could expect nothing better. On Monday we commenced painting, and getting the vessel ready for port. This work, too, is done by
