Two Years Before the Mast

Endnotes

Mr. Cooper. James Fenimore Cooper, 1789⁠–⁠1851, was the first American novelist to attract wide attention. His Indian stories were based upon knowledge gained from residence in a frontier settlement in New York State. Like Dana, he left college to ship before the mast. His experiences as a sailor furnished him with material for several novels of the sea. Of these The Pilot was published in 1823; The Red Rover in 1828. —⁠Keyes ↩
Mr. Ames. Nathaniel Ames, died 1835, was a publisher and author. His Mariner’s Sketches appeared in 1830; Nautical Reminiscences, in 1832. —⁠Keyes ↩
Dress-coat⁠ ⁠… at Cambridge. The requirement of a specific undergraduate costume is today unknown in American colleges. When the custom was abandoned, or how it originated, seems difficult to determine. In this connection a letter from Colonel Thomas Wentworth Higginson, who probably knows more concerning Harvard traditions than any one else, is well worth quoting:⁠—

“My impression is,” he says, “that we were required to wear a dress-coat to chapel on Sundays; but have no recollection of kid gloves or silk cap. You do not speak of the insignia of the four classes⁠—that the Sophomores wore one black stripe on the sleeve, Juniors two, and Seniors three, the Freshmen not having any at all. These things could not have been very strictly inspected at morning prayers, for I remember my schoolmate, William Story, going down before me to morning prayers, wearing a camlet cloak entirely torn down in the middle, from neck to heels. I remember also Edward Everett Hale coming down from his room in the upper story of Massachusetts, when the bell was almost at its last stroke, having, as we Freshmen said, jumped out of bed, thrown all his clothes over the banister, and jumped into them on the way down.⁠ ⁠… Dana after his return from sea⁠ ⁠… became rather a swell than otherwise.”

In response to inquiry, Rev. Dr. J. S. T. Coolidge, Harvard’s oldest alumnus, and a member of the class below Dana, writes, “We were obliged to appear on Sundays and all public functions in a dress-coat⁠—nothing about caps and nothing about gloves.” —⁠Keyes ↩
Jack tar. Both “jack” and “tar” are used to denote a sailor. Occasionally the two terms are used together. —⁠Keyes ↩
Neptune. The Roman god of the sea. —⁠Keyes ↩
Hove in sight. Came into view. The term is derived from the laboring motion of a ship on the waves. —⁠Keyes ↩
Stood⁠ ⁠… watch. Went on duty. A ship’s officers and crew are separated into two divisions or watches, serving alternate periods of four hours each. See this paragraph. They are known as port watch and starboard watch; the one occupying the left side of the forecastle, the other, the right side. —⁠Keyes ↩
Beating. Sailing against the wind by means of a zigzag course. —⁠Keyes ↩
Roads. An open place, not a harbor, where ships may ride at anchor. —⁠Keyes ↩
Boatswain. A subordinate ship’s officer whose chief duty is to call the crew together for duty. —⁠Keyes ↩
Windlass. A hoisting apparatus, used on ships for heaving the anchor. —⁠Keyes ↩
Ground swell. A broad heaving of the sea. —⁠Keyes ↩
Larboard. Larboard and starboard were formerly the nautical terms for left and right. Owing to their similarity in sound, the words were liable to confusion. Present usage has substituted “port” for “larboard.” —⁠Keyes ↩
Lookout. A position on the mast of a ship giving a wide view of the ocean. The term is likewise applied to the man occupying the position. —⁠Keyes ↩
Quarterdeck, situated in the rear part of the ship and reserved to officers. —⁠Keyes ↩
Forecastle. That part of the upper deck of a ship where the sailors eat and sleep. —⁠Keyes ↩
Trim the yards. Turn the sails closer to the wind. —⁠Keyes ↩
Gulf Stream. A warm ocean current flowing from the Gulf of Mexico northward along the coast of the United States. —⁠Keyes ↩
Eight bells. Eight o’clock. The twelve hours of the sailor’s day are divided into three watches of four hours each. In each, the half-hours are indicated by the strokes of a bell. Thus, half after midnight is one bell; four o’clock is eight bells; half after four, one bell; eight o’clock, eight bells. —⁠Keyes ↩
Leeward. The side toward which the wind blows. —⁠Keyes ↩
All hands, ahoy! All hands on deck. In case of storm or other unusual circumstance when the entire crew is needed to operate the vessel, a sailor may be deprived of his rest between watches. —⁠Keyes ↩
Close hauled. Sailing with the ship pointing as nearly as possible in the direction from which the wind blows. —⁠Keyes ↩
Lying⁠ ⁠… beam ends. Lying over upon her side. —⁠Keyes ↩
Reef. To reduce the size of a sail by folding and tying. —⁠Keyes ↩
Bilge water. Foul water that collects in the bilge or lower part of a ship. —⁠Keyes ↩
Waist. That part of the ship midway between stem and stern. —⁠Keyes ↩
Weather side. The side from which the wind blows. —⁠Keyes ↩
Slush. Grease. —⁠Keyes ↩
Log. A triangular board, weighted at the bottom, to which a long line is attached. When the log is “hove” from the stern of a moving vessel, the line runs out and the speed of the vessel is computed by the “knots” that pass out in a given time. Each knot on the line indicates a nautical mile of length. The vessel therefore is said to travel so many knots an hour. —⁠Keyes ↩
Horn. Cape Horn, the southern extremity of South America, famed for the rough weather which prevails in its vicinity. Before the building of transcontinental railroads, nearly all commerce between the eastern and western coasts of America was carried on by vessels that sailed “round the Horn.” —⁠Keyes ↩
Athwart our hawse. Sailing across our line of progress. —⁠Keyes ↩
Break them. Deprive them of their official position. —⁠Keyes ↩
Supercargo. An agent employed on some merchant ships to sell the cargo of an outgoing voyage and purchase another one for the return. —⁠Keyes ↩
Sailing master and quartermaster. The officer responsible for navigating the ship and for issuing supplies to the sailors. —⁠Keyes ↩
Logbook. The book in which is kept the record of the voyage. —⁠Keyes ↩
Furl. To gather into a roll and tie securely. —⁠Keyes ↩
Serving boards and marlinespikes. Boards used in making small ropes: sharp pointed instruments of iron used in separating strands of small rope. —⁠Keyes ↩
Galley. The ship kitchen. —⁠Keyes ↩
Gangway. Passageway. —⁠Keyes ↩
Log⁠ ⁠… relieved. The log line is heaved out to find the speed of the vessel; the new watch is sent to duty; the men on duty assume their places; a fresh man is placed at the steering-wheel. —⁠Keyes ↩
Scuttlebutt. A cask for drinking water; generally placed on the deck of a vessel. It was called a “scuttled” butt because it has a square hole in its cover, with a lid, like the scuttle of a house roof. —⁠Keyes ↩
Spun yarn, marline, seizing stuff. Various kinds of small rope used in binding and splicing. —⁠Keyes ↩
Bowsed well taught. Tightly stretched. The modern spelling is “taut,” though the older form, from the adjective “tight,” might well have been preserved. —⁠Keyes ↩
Seizing and coverings. Binding twine and coverings for exposed places on the ropes. The tackles are the pulley-blocks and ropes used for hauling the rigging ropes tight. —⁠Keyes ↩
Oakum. Hemp fibre procured by picking out the yarns of old rope; used in caulking the seams of a ship. —⁠Keyes ↩
Pea jacket. A short, heavy, close-woven overcoat. —⁠Keyes ↩
Beam. The side of a vessel. —⁠Keyes ↩
Trade winds. Currents of air moving from north and south toward the equator. While steadiest in the Southern Hemisphere, they vary considerably according to the season of the year. They are caused by the heated air at the equator rising, and currents to replace it rushing from north and south. They are called trade winds because of their assistance to merchantmen. —⁠Keyes ↩
Colors⁠ ⁠… when dying. A notion which the author probably derived from Byron’s Childe Harold.

“Parting day
Dies like the dolphin, whom each pang imbues,
With a new color as it gasps away,
The last still loveliest.”

—⁠Keyes ↩
Running large. Sailing directly before the wind; with the wind astern. —⁠Keyes ↩
Water upon the sails. A process supposed to increase the speed of a vessel, possibly by filling the tiny pores of the canvas, and thus presenting a better surface to the wind. —⁠Keyes ↩
Clipper-built brig. A two-masted vessel built for speed. Its fine lines enabled it to sail on the wind; that is, with the wind on the quarter, faster than a bulky merchantman could. The larger vessel sailed better directly before the wind.

This was presumably a piratical craft. Although piracy was practically extinct at this time, South American waters were still the occasional haunt of oceangoing desperadoes. It is unfortunate that the author dismisses so briefly a matter concerning which there is little available data. —⁠Keyes ↩
Hermaphrodite brig. A brig having one square-rigged and one fore-and-aft-rigged mast. —⁠Keyes ↩
Four points. The circle on the compass is divided into thirty-two “points.” —⁠Keyes ↩
Binnacle. The case for the ship’s compass; generally located forward, beside the steering-wheel. —⁠Keyes ↩
Son of Neptune. According to nautical tradition, a sailor’s right to consideration depends upon his having crossed the equator. Even to the present day, as in the winter of 1907⁠–⁠1908, when the United States fleet sailed from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast, the crossing of the equator is signalized by rough horseplay in which the less experienced men are “initiated” as sons of Neptune, the initiation generally taking the form of a thorough ducking. —⁠Keyes ↩
My helm. I was steering. —⁠Keyes ↩
Companion. A skylight admitting light to the lower deck. —⁠Keyes ↩
Mahon soger. Probably Turkish loafer. —⁠Keyes ↩
Chronometer or⁠ ⁠… sextant. A chronometer is an extremely accurate timepiece which keeps Greenwich time, used in determining a ship’s longitude at sea. A sextant is an instrument whereby latitude is determined by measuring the sun’s height above the horizon at noon. By the sextant the exact moment of noon is determined. The difference between this time and that recorded by the chronometer serves for calculating the distance west from Greenwich, i.e. the longitude. —⁠Keyes ↩
Landfall. In nautical language, the sighting of land. —⁠Keyes ↩
Quarter. The side of a vessel; toward the rear. —⁠Keyes ↩
Reef point. One of the numerous small ropes used in reducing the dimensions of a sail. —⁠Keyes ↩
This word “lay,” which is in such general use on board ship, being used in giving orders instead of “go”; as “Lay forward!” “Lay aft!” “Lay aloft!” etc., I do not understand to be the neuter verb, lie, mispronounced, but to be the active verb lay, with the objective case understood; as “Lay yourselves forwards!” “Lay yourselves aft!” etc. ↩
Southwester. A waterproof hat with a wide brim or extension behind for protecting the wearer’s neck. —⁠Keyes ↩
Haul down and clew up. Haul down and make fast. —⁠Keyes ↩
Bow-ports. Openings at the bow. —⁠Keyes ↩
Hawsehole. A hole in the bow through which the anchor chain passes. —⁠Keyes ↩
Knightheads. A pair of heavy upright timbers placed on either side of the bowsprit as a support. —⁠Keyes ↩
Lee scuppers. Gutters bordering the lee side of the deck. —⁠Keyes ↩
Grog. A mixture of spirits and water, without sweetening. —⁠Keyes ↩
Grampuses. A variety of large dolphin. —⁠Keyes ↩
Heave⁠ ⁠… to. To bring to a standstill. —⁠Keyes ↩
Starbowlines. Men of the starboard watch. —⁠Keyes ↩
Kid. A small tub or wooden bowl for sailors’ rations. —⁠Keyes ↩
Hove flat aback. Brought to a standstill. —⁠Keyes ↩
Advance. A small payment on account of wages made when a sailor agrees to ship for a given voyage. —⁠Keyes ↩
“Flying Dutchman.” A legendary spectral ship whose captain, a blasphemous Dutchman, having vowed that he would sail round Cape Horn against the wind, is compelled to sail his vessel until the day of judgment. —⁠Keyes ↩
Fore peak. The narrow, forward hold of a vessel. —⁠Keyes ↩
“Alerta.” “On guard!” —⁠Keyes ↩
Classic island. The island of Juan Fernandez, off the coast of Chile, was, during four years, the solitary abode of Alexander Selkirk (1676⁠–⁠1723), a Scotch sailor whose adventures are supposed to have suggested Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe. —⁠Keyes ↩
Presidio. Fortress. —⁠Keyes ↩
Ground apples. Probably artichokes. —⁠Keyes ↩
Lord Anson. Lord George Anson, 1697⁠–⁠1762, an English admiral and navigator. —⁠Keyes ↩
Botany Bay. A British convict colony in Australia during the latter part of the eighteenth century. —⁠Keyes ↩
Paseo. Pleasure trip; stroll. —⁠Keyes ↩
Padre. Priest. —⁠Keyes ↩
Capitán. Commander of the garrison. —⁠Keyes ↩
Off and on. Part of the time pointing toward the shore; part of the time away from, as the ship tacked back and forth while waiting. —⁠Keyes ↩
Filled away. Let the wind fill the sails. —⁠Keyes ↩
Tarpaulin. Waterproof canvas: in this case sailor’s waterproof hat. —⁠Keyes ↩
Rigging. The rigging of a ship consists of the cordage of the masts, yards, etc. The lower rigging is that of lower masts and yards. Standing rigging is that which is more or less permanently in place. Running rigging is that used in the raising and lowering of the yards. —⁠Keyes ↩
Rattled down. To fasten with light lines. —⁠Keyes ↩
Riding down. Freed of its nautical terms, the passage means that the sailor slides down the stay by means of a swing formed from one end of a rope. The other end, having been given a twist around the stay, is passed through a pulley block attached to the masthead, and thence carried to a man on deck, who thus controls his companion’s progress down the stay. —⁠Keyes ↩
Truck. A disk at the top of a mast. —⁠Keyes ↩
Haze is a word of frequent use on board ship, and never, I believe, used elsewhere. It is very expressive to a sailor, and means to punish by hard work. Let an officer once say, “I’ll haze you,” and your fate is fixed. You will be “worked up,” if you are not a better man than he is. ↩
Steerage The forward part of the ship below the main deck. In the present instance undoubtedly allotted to the author and his companion as a mark of special distinction. —⁠Keyes ↩
Mess. Eat with. —⁠Keyes ↩
Bay of Sir Francis Drake. San Francisco Bay. —⁠Keyes ↩
Bent⁠ ⁠… buoys. Attached the anchor cables to floats, by means of which they might readily be recovered, and devised a quickly loosened fastening which should enable the ship temporarily to leave her moorings without laborious hoisting of anchors. —⁠Keyes ↩
Yardarm gaskets⁠ ⁠… rope yarns. Substituted easily broken yarn for the rope generally used in securing a furled sail. These measures were taken to insure speedy departure from a dangerous coast in time of storm. —⁠Keyes ↩
Raking. Slanting backward. —⁠Keyes ↩
Gunwale. Side rail of a boat. —⁠Keyes ↩
Sheets. The ropes at the lower extremities of a sail. To sheet home is to stretch the sail by fastening the sheets to the yard ends. —⁠Keyes ↩
Wore ship. Turned the vessel about. —⁠Keyes ↩
Upon a taut bowline. Sailing close to the wind; that is, with the wind blowing toward the side of the ship instead of toward the stern. —⁠Keyes ↩
Royal George. A famous English man-of-war, carrying 108 guns. In 1792, while undergoing refitting, the vessel suddenly capsized and went down with her commander, Admiral Kempenfelt, and nearly 1,000 men. —⁠Keyes ↩
Señora. Spanish for “lady.” —⁠Keyes ↩
Keeping the land aboard. Keeping near shore. —⁠Keyes ↩
Haul⁠ ⁠… wind. Point the vessel more nearly in the direction from which the wind is blowing. —⁠Keyes ↩
Looking squally. Looking worried. —⁠Keyes ↩
Sprung. Bent. —⁠Keyes ↩
Taking the sun. Making observations to determine latitude and longitude. —⁠Keyes ↩
Bene. Excellent. —⁠Keyes ↩
“Work Tom Cox’s traverse,” etc. Sailor slang for avoiding work, or causing work to progress in the slowest possible manner. —⁠Keyes ↩
Manifest. Itemized list of the cargo. —⁠Keyes ↩
Real. A Mexican coin worth 12½ cents. —⁠Keyes ↩
Chicken skin. Kid. —⁠Keyes ↩
Castilians. Pure-blooded Spaniards. —⁠Keyes ↩
Fandango. A dancing party. Literally, a lively Spanish dance. —⁠Keyes ↩
Hercules. A Greek demigod, considered the perfection of physical strength. —⁠Keyes ↩
Foul anchor. An anchor twined with a piece of its cable: a very usual design for naval uniforms, etc. —⁠Keyes ↩
Cordilleras. The southern ranges of the Rocky Mountains. —⁠Keyes ↩
Kedge, or keeleg. A small anchor. —⁠Keyes ↩
Geswarp. Sometimes guesswarp: a rope used to attach a boat to the boom, swung out from the side of the vessel to keep the boat from striking the ship. —⁠Keyes ↩
Nolens volens. Unwilling or willing. —⁠Keyes ↩
Linimenta laborum. Easers of labor. The author would seem to have coined his own Latin for the occasion. —⁠Keyes ↩
Too much down by the stern. Badly balanced. Too many officers and too few men. —⁠Keyes ↩
Pueblo de los Angelos. The present city of Los Angeles. —⁠Keyes ↩
“No quiero.” “I don’t wish to.” —⁠Keyes ↩
Bristol fashion. After the manner of Bristol, England, famous for its shipbuilding. —⁠Keyes ↩
Reeving a Spanish burton. Adjusting a light hoisting apparatus attached to the mast. —⁠Keyes ↩
From the waterways to the keelson. From the deck planks to the bottom of the vessel. —⁠Keyes ↩
Coati. The author evidently means the coyote, a kind of prairie wolf still very common on the Western plains. —⁠Keyes ↩
Scott’s “Pirate.” The Pirate, a sea story by Sir Walter Scott, an English novelist, 1771⁠–⁠1832. —⁠Keyes ↩
Cat the anchor. After heaving the anchor, to fasten it to the cathead, a beam extending sidewise from the vessel’s bow. —⁠Keyes ↩
Banner and cross of St. George. The British merchant flag: blood red with a red cross upon a blue ground in the upper left-hand corner. —⁠Keyes ↩
Housed. Covered or protected with canvas. —⁠Keyes ↩
Unbent. Detached. —⁠Keyes ↩
Martingale. A beam used to strengthen the bowsprit, and held at right angles to it. —⁠Keyes ↩
Bumpkin. A projecting spar. —⁠Keyes ↩
Bower. Bow anchor. —⁠Keyes ↩
Pulpería. Spanish-American for general store. —⁠Keyes ↩
Bon gré, mal gré. Willing or not. —⁠Keyes ↩
Grey Friars. A monastic order founded by St. Francis of Assisi, 1208 AD —⁠Keyes ↩
“Hay⁠ ⁠… comer?” “Have you anything to eat?” —⁠Keyes ↩
“Si⁠ ⁠… usted?” “Yes. What will you have?” —⁠Keyes ↩
“Dios se lo pague.” “May God repay you.” —⁠Keyes ↩
Montezuma. The chief of a confederacy of Indian tribes occupying a portion of Mexico at the time of its invasion by the Spaniards under Cortes in 1520. The author evidently holds the romantic notions of Aztec civilization which recent investigation has largely exploded. —⁠Keyes ↩
“¿Quién sabe?” “Who knows?” —⁠Keyes ↩
“Los Ingles marineros.” “The English sailors.” The ignorant foreigner seldom differentiates between Americans and Englishmen. —⁠Keyes ↩
Tom Cringle says. Sailor slang for “it is said.” —⁠Keyes ↩
Leander. A hero of Greek poetry who swam the strait connecting the Ægean and the Sea of Marmora to seek his ladylove. —⁠Keyes ↩
Warped. Was towed by means of ropes. —⁠Keyes ↩
Soger (soldier) is the worst term of reproach that can be applied to a sailor. It signifies a skulk, a sherk⁠—one who is always trying to get clear of work, and is out of the way, or hanging back, when duty is to be done. “Marine” is the term applied more particularly to a man who is ignorant and clumsy about seaman’s work⁠—a greenhorn⁠—a landlubber. To make a sailor shoulder a handspike, and walk fore and aft the deck, like a sentry, is the most ignominious punishment that could be put upon him. Such a punishment inflicted upon an able seaman in a vessel of war, would break his spirit down more than a flogging. ↩
Poop deck. A deck built on the stern of a ship. —⁠Keyes ↩
A’-cockbill. Tipped at an angle to the deck, so as to avoid the semblance of a cross. —⁠Keyes ↩
Garrick. David Garrick, 1716⁠–⁠1779, an English actor. —⁠Keyes ↩
“No importe.” “No matter.” —⁠Keyes ↩
“Veni, vidi, vici.” “I came, I saw, I conquered.” —⁠Keyes ↩
“Otra vez” and “Vivian los marineros.” Otra vez is the same as encore. Vivian los marineros. Long live the sailors. —⁠Keyes ↩
Yahoos. Noisy and unpleasant animals invented by Dean Swift in Gulliver’s Travels. —⁠Keyes ↩
Prickly pear. A variety of cactus. —⁠Keyes ↩
The letter i in the Sandwich Island language is sounded like e in the English. ↩
“Mollia tempora fandi.” Favorable time for speaking. See Virgil, Aeneid, IV, 2:93. —⁠Keyes ↩
Captain Cook. Captain James Cook, 1728⁠–⁠1779, an English navigator and discoverer to whom is credited the discovery of the Hawaiian Islands in 1778. Owing to a difference with the natives over the stealing of a boat, the captain was killed. Tradition has it that he was eaten. Whether cannibals or not, the Hawaiians remained idol worshippers until 1819 when, with the reign of King Liholiho, Christian missionaries began their labors in the islands. —⁠Keyes ↩
Steamboats. The first steamboat to navigate successfully in America was Robert Fulton’s Clermont, which in the spring of 1807 made the trip from New York to Albany. In 1819 the first steamboat passage across the Atlantic was accomplished. But it was not until 1837 that steam navigation of large vessels became practicable. —⁠Keyes ↩
Flippers. Leg parts. —⁠Keyes ↩
Aquadiente and annisou. Strong liquors. —⁠Keyes ↩
Three sheets in the wind. Intoxicated. —⁠Keyes ↩
Godwin. William Godwin, 1756⁠–⁠1836, an English novelist and writer on social and political topics. —⁠Keyes ↩
“Tityre⁠ ⁠… fagi.” “0, Tityrus, thou reclining under the shade of a spreading beech tree.” See Virgil, “Eclogues,” I., 1. This quotation from the opening of Virgil’s idyls of pastoral life has a certain humorous inappropriateness to the unpleasant and laborious employment of the author. —⁠Keyes ↩
Grains. Fish spears. —⁠Keyes ↩
Cortes. Hernando Cortes (or Cortez), 1485⁠–⁠1547, a Spanish general and explorer who discovered California and conquered Mexico. —⁠Keyes ↩
Jesuits. Members of the Roman Catholic order, known properly as the Society of Jesus. Members of this order, founded in 1534, and of the Franciscans, founded in 1208, have been among the most active and zealous in missionary enterprises. —⁠Keyes ↩
Vancouver. George Vancouver, 1758⁠–⁠1795, an English navigator, whose name is associated with the exploration of the northwest coast of America. —⁠Keyes ↩
Hidalgo. A Spanish nobleman. —⁠Keyes ↩
Calabozo. Jail. —⁠Keyes ↩
Seventy-four. A battleship of seventy-four guns. —⁠Keyes ↩
Harness cask. A tub for salt meat. —⁠Keyes ↩
Manrope stanchions. Supports for a rope hand rail. —⁠Keyes ↩
Jacks. Iron footholds attached to the mast. —⁠Keyes ↩
Bulwer. Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer, first Baron Lytton, 1803⁠–⁠1873, a noted English novelist, poet, dramatist, and politician. —⁠Keyes ↩
Hingham. A Massachusetts manufacturing town. At the time under discussion it was famed for its buckets. —⁠Keyes ↩
Short gaskets⁠ ⁠… together. In the process of furling, the middle of the sail, or the bunt, is first hauled up to the yard. The sail is then bound to the yard by short ropes called gaskets. —⁠Keyes ↩
Falconer’s “Shipwreck.” The best-known poem of William Falconer, 1732⁠–⁠1769, a Scotch sailor-post. —⁠Keyes ↩
Corn laws. Laws passed in England in 1815, for the purpose of stimulating home agriculture by levying heavy duties upon imported grain. They were the source of considerable political agitation until their repeal in 1846. —⁠Keyes ↩
Kedging. Progressing by hauling on a cable attached to an anchor sunk in the bottom. In this case the vessel sailed so easily against the wind that it seemed as if she must have some outside means of propulsion. —⁠Keyes ↩
Bends. The curvature of the lower hull. —⁠Keyes ↩
Chocked, and griped. Fastened in place. —⁠Keyes ↩
Catted and fished. Secured at the cathead, after the strain of the wind had broken it loose from the bottom. —⁠Keyes ↩
Fore course. Lowest sail on the foremast. The courses are the foresail and mainsail. —⁠Keyes ↩
Board the main tack. To turn the mainsail by carrying forward and fastening the weather clew. —⁠Keyes ↩
War between the United States and France. In 1813, by treaty signed at Paris, France had assumed responsibility for damage done to American shipping during the wars of Napoleon. Later, France refused to fulfil the pledge and war was averted by the interposition of Great Britain. Satisfactory adjustment of the difficulty was reached in the spring of 1836. —⁠Keyes ↩
“Old horse” and “soup meagre.” Salt beef and watery soup. —⁠Keyes ↩
Homeward-bound splices. Makeshift repairs. —⁠Keyes ↩
“Caramba.” A Spanish oath. —⁠Keyes ↩
Ensign and broad pennant. Ensign: the national colors. Broad pennant: a flag indicating the rank of commodore. —⁠Keyes ↩
Boltrope. By the time the halyards were made fast, the sail had blown away, leaving only its rope edging. —⁠Keyes ↩
Dead reckoning. Rough computation of position at sea, made by reference to the record of distance travelled. As the ship had been drifting for a week, the opportunity of making actual headway was valuable. —⁠Keyes ↩
Asitka, in Russian America. Sitka, Alaska. It was not until 1867 that Russia sold her American possessions to the United States. —⁠Keyes ↩
Catharpins⁠ ⁠… taffrail. From top to bottom and from end to end. —⁠Keyes ↩
Sinnet. Braided grass to be used for small rope, or for hat making. —⁠Keyes ↩
Old style. The calendar arrangement in vogue previous to 1582, when, by order of Pope Gregory XIII, the calendar was altered by calling October 5, October 15. Modern Russia maintains the old-style calendar. —⁠Keyes ↩
If California⁠ ⁠… country. It should be remembered that these lines were written eight years before California became a part of the Union and before the discovery of gold in 1849 led to heavy immigration into the territory. They are an indication of the author’s keen observation and excellent judgment. —⁠Keyes ↩
Quakers. Dummies. —⁠Keyes ↩
Shortest communication⁠ ⁠… country. Two and one-half months, in 1836, compares strangely with the present five to seven days’ mail transportation across the continent. At that time, too, the telegraph was still in its experimental stage: it was not until 1845 that the first line, that between Baltimore and Washington, was established. —⁠Keyes ↩
“Dios se lo pague.” “God reward you.” —⁠Keyes ↩
“Gil Blas.” A romance by the French novelist Le Sage, 1668⁠–⁠1747. —⁠Keyes ↩
Santa Ana. At this time, President of Mexico. —⁠Keyes ↩
Tampico. The author appears to have mixed his dates at this point. The battle of Tampico, which ended Spain’s attempts to regain Mexico, was fought in 1829. It was, however, this engagement which made Santa Ana’s reputation and enabled him for twenty years to control Mexican affairs. —⁠Keyes ↩
Expedition against the Texans. Though at this time one of the states of the Republic of Mexico, Texas was chiefly populated by emigrants from the United States who were constantly in collision with the Mexican authorities. Actual revolution, which resulted in the independence of Texas, broke out early in 1836. —⁠Keyes ↩
Bustamente. Anastasio Bustamente, 1780⁠–⁠1853, a politician and soldier, rival to Santa Ana. After Santa Ana’s defeat by the Texans, Bustamente was, for a time, President of Mexico. —⁠Keyes ↩
“No quiere religion.” Does not want religion. —⁠Keyes ↩
Taney. Roger B. Taney was appointed Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court to succeed John Marshall, who died in 1835. —⁠Keyes ↩
El Vizconde Melbourne. The period 1834⁠–⁠1837 saw Viscount Melbourne twice prime minister of England, Sir Robert Peel having occupied the position for a brief time between the former’s two terms of office. When the brig Pilgrim sailed from Boston, Earle Grey had been for two years prime minister subsequent to the retirement of the Duke of Wellington. —⁠Keyes ↩
Espiritu Santo. Holy Spirit. —⁠Keyes ↩
Castanets. Wooden or bone clappers held in the hand and sounded as an accompaniment to music. —⁠Keyes ↩
Aloha. The Sandwich Island term of greeting. —⁠Keyes ↩
“Maestro de la casa.” Mr. Russell had been flattered by being termed “Don Thomas,” “Captain of the Neighborhood,” and “Master of the House.” —⁠Keyes ↩
Paseár. Converse. —⁠Keyes ↩
Caballéro. Gentleman. —⁠Keyes ↩
Long togs. Shore clothing: long in contrast with the short sailor jacket. —⁠Keyes ↩
Pope. Alexander Pope, 1688⁠–⁠1744, in his Moral Essays, has a number of unkind things to say concerning woman. —⁠Keyes ↩
Clairvoyance. The power of seeing, in a trance, scenes or objects not within range of normal vision. —⁠Keyes ↩
A.B.’s. The degree of Bachelor of Arts, conferred upon college men at graduation. —⁠Keyes ↩
“Auctoritate mihi commissa.” “By the authority vested in me”; a part of the Latin address with which the college president prefaces the conferring of degrees. —⁠Keyes ↩
Forsitan et haec olim. Forsitan et haec olim meminisse juvabit: Perhaps hereafter it may be pleasant to remember these things. —⁠Keyes ↩
“Woodstock.” A novel by Sir Walter Scott, dealing with the period of the Commonwealth in England. —⁠Keyes ↩
Dunnage. A covering for the bottom of the hold to protect the cargo from bilge water. —⁠Keyes ↩
Savans. Experts: knowing ones. —⁠Keyes ↩
Run. The after part of a ship. —⁠Keyes ↩
Dog. A hook. —⁠Keyes ↩
Falls. Hauling ropes. —⁠Keyes ↩
Nippered. Pulled tight. —⁠Keyes ↩
Luff tackle. A special arrangement of ropes and pulleys. —⁠Keyes ↩
Dr. Graham. Sylvester Graham, 1794⁠–⁠1851, an old-time “food-specialist”; a vegetarian and the promoter of “graham bread.” —⁠Keyes ↩
Hygeia. The goddess of health. —⁠Keyes ↩
“Moku⁠—Nui Moku.” Large, very large. —⁠Keyes ↩
Wall-sided and kettle-bottomed. With straight sides and rounded underpart, giving a roomy hold for cargo. —⁠Keyes ↩
Star Chamber. An English secret court which tried cases without resort to jury. Its unjust and arbitrary decisions, which led to its eventual dissolution, have made it famous for all time. —⁠Keyes ↩
Botany Bay. Formerly a British convict settlement in Australia. —⁠Keyes ↩
“Vi et armis.” By force. —⁠Keyes ↩
When the crew were paid off in Boston, the owners answered the order, but generously refused to deduct the amount from the payroll, saying that the exchange was made under compulsion. They also allowed S⁠⸺ his exchange money. ↩
Fast. Mooring rope or chain. —⁠Keyes ↩
Channels. Pieces of wood or iron fastened to the outer sides of a vessel to keep the shrouds free of the bulwarks. —⁠Keyes ↩
On removing the cathead, after the ship arrived at Boston, it was found that there were two holes under it which had been bored for the purpose of driving treenails, and which, accidentally, had not been plugged up when the cathead was placed over them. This was sufficient to account for the leak, and for our not having been able to discover and stop it. ↩
Worked a traverse. Got ahead of them. —⁠Keyes ↩
The customs as to the allowance of “grub” are very nearly the same in all American merchantmen. Whenever a pig is killed, the sailors have one mess from it. The rest goes to the cabin. The smaller live stock, poultry, etc., they never taste.

And, indeed, they do not complain of this, for it would take a great deal to supply them with a good meal, and without the accompaniments (which could hardly be furnished to them), it would not be much better than salt beef. But even as to the salt beef, they are scarcely dealt fairly with; for whenever a barrel is opened, before any of the beef is put into the harness cask, the steward comes up, and picks it all over, and takes out the best pieces (those that have any fat in them) for the cabin.

This was done in both the vessels I was in, and the men said that it was usual in other vessels. Indeed, it is made no secret, but some of the crew are usually called to help in assorting and putting away the pieces. By this arrangement the hard, dry pieces, which the sailors call “old horse,” come to their share.

There is a singular piece of rhyme, traditional among sailors, which they say over such pieces of beef. I do not know that it ever appeared in print before. When seated round the kid, if a particularly bad piece is found, one of them takes it up, and addressing it, repeats these lines: “Old horse! old horse! what brought you here?”

—“From Sacarap to Portland pier
I’ve carted stone this many a year:
Till, killed by blows and sore abuse,
They salted me down for sailors’ use.

The sailors they do me despise:
They turn me over and damn my eyes;
Cut off my meat, and pick my bones,
And pitch the rest to Davy Jones.”

There is a story current among seamen, that a beef-dealer was convicted, at Boston, of having sold old horse for ship’s stores, instead of beef, and had been sentenced to be confined in jail, until he should eat the whole of it; and that he is now lying in Boston jail. I have heard this story often, on board other vessels beside those of our own nation. It is very generally believed, and is always highly commended, as a fair instance of retaliatory justice. ↩
Humbugging with our flying kites. Setting and furling light extra sails. —⁠Keyes ↩
Saturnalia. General frolic. —⁠Keyes ↩
Davy Jones. The sailors’ term for the spirit of the ocean. “Davy Jones’ Locker,” the bottom of the sea. —⁠Keyes ↩
The proportions of the ingredients of the tea that was made for us (and ours, as I have before stated, was a favorable specimen of American merchantmen) were, a pint of tea, and a pint and a half of molasses, to about three gallons of water.

These are all boiled down together in the “coppers,” and before serving it out, the mess is stirred up with a stick, so as to give each man his fair share of sweetening and tea leaves. The tea for the cabin is, of course, made in the usual way, in a teapot, and drank with sugar. ↩
I do not wish these remarks, so far as they relate to the saving of expense in the outfit, to be applied to the owners of our ship, for she was supplied with an abundance of stores, of the best kind that are given to seamen; though the dispensing of them is necessarily left to the captain, Indeed, so high was the reputation of “the employ” among men and officers, for the character and outfit of their vessels, and for their liberality in conducting their voyages, that when it was known that they had a ship fitting out for a long voyage, and that hands were to be shipped at a certain time⁠—a half hour before the time, as one of the crew told me, numbers of sailors were steering down the wharf, hopping over the barrels, like flocks of sheep. ↩
Plagues of Egypt. See Exodus 7⁠–⁠11. —⁠Keyes ↩
Fish tackle and fish davit. Apparatus for raising the anchor to the side of a ship. —⁠Keyes ↩
Belaying pin. A movable pin to which light ropes may be fastened. —⁠Keyes ↩
Cowper. William Cowper, 1731⁠–⁠1800, an English poet. —⁠Keyes ↩
Horace. Quintus Horatius Flaccus, 68 BC−8 AD. A Roman poet, writer of odes and satires. “Ille et nefasto,” Odes, II, 13, an address to an ill-omened tree that fell upon the poet and nearly brought him to an untimely end. —⁠Keyes ↩
Goethe. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1749⁠–⁠1832, a German poet and critic. The list is indicative of a varied and unusual literary taste and interest on the author’s part. —⁠Keyes ↩
Chip. The log itself, which, owing to the direction of the sea, failed to show the direct drag of the vessel. —⁠Keyes ↩
Broaching to. To veer suddenly in such a way as to be in danger of capsizing. —⁠Keyes ↩
Hounds. Projections at the masthead. —⁠Keyes ↩
Equal to steam. The swiftest transatlantic steamships have recently covered three thousand miles in a little less than five days. —⁠Keyes ↩
Ipso facto. By virtue of the fact that he does it. —⁠Keyes ↩
Great Bear. A constellation of 125 stars, visible only in northern latitudes. —⁠Keyes ↩
Horse latitudes. So called because vessels engaged in carrying horses from the United States to the West Indies were frequently obliged to throw over part of their cargo for want of water. —⁠Keyes ↩
Erebus. A place, according to classic myth, of utter darkness: Hades, or a place on the way thither. —⁠Keyes ↩
Corposant. This phenomenon, which is the result of electrical disturbance, is not uncommon in the tropics. The term corposant, a perversion of the Latin for “holy body” indicates the superstitious awe with which sailors have viewed it. —⁠Keyes ↩
Scurvy. A disease due largely to a diet of salt meat, without the addition of vegetables. Formerly the sailors’ scourge, scurvy has become less frequent since the introduction of canned vegetables. —⁠Keyes ↩
Spanish Main. The northern coast of South America. —⁠Keyes ↩
Who was president. In the fall of 1836 Martin Van Buren was elected President of the United States. —⁠Keyes ↩
St. Peters. St. Peters Church in Rome: the largest ecclesiastical edifice. —⁠Keyes ↩
The line⁠ ⁠… swifter. The line is passed through a block attached to one of the shrouds. —⁠Keyes ↩
Pilot. Large vessels do not attempt to navigate the intricate waters of harbor approaches without the aid of a special pilot. —⁠Keyes ↩
On ’change. At the exchange; the general meeting place for men engaged in certain commercial enterprises. —⁠Keyes ↩
Raking. Firing so as to sweep the ship from end to end. —⁠Keyes ↩
Topliff’s agent. The representative of the Topliffs who had established in Boston a kind of news bureau, through which the local papers were supplied with shipping intelligence. —⁠Keyes ↩
Pressgang. A body of men organized to secure compulsory enlistment in army or navy. At one time the English navy was largely recruited by this means. —⁠Keyes ↩
I am not sure that I have stated, in the course of my narrative, the manner in which sailors eat, on board ship. There are neither tables, knives, forks, nor plates, in a forecastle; but the kid (a wooden tub, with iron hoops) is placed on the floor and the crew sit round it, and each man cuts for himself with the common jackknife or sheath-knife, that he carries about him. They drink their tea out of tin pots, holding little less than a quart each.

These particulars are not looked upon as hardships, and, indeed, may be considered matters of choice. Sailors, in our merchantmen, furnish their own eating utensils, as they do many of the instruments which they use in the ship’s work, such as knives, palms and needles, marlinespikes, rubbers, etc. And considering their mode of life in other respects, the little time they would have for laying and clearing away a table with its apparatus, and the room it would take up in a forecastle, as well as the simple character of their meals, consisting generally of only one piece of meat⁠—it is certainly a convenient method, and, as the kid and pans are usually kept perfectly clean, a neat and simple one. I had supposed these things to be generally known, until I heard, a few months ago, a lawyer of repute, who has had a good deal to do with marine cases, ask a sailor upon the stand whether the crew had “got up from table” when a certain thing happened. ↩
Lascars. East Indian sailors. —⁠Keyes ↩
Pronounced Leese. ↩