clouds would come along about every
half-hour, just fast enough to keep the men busy clewing down and
hoisting the lighter canvas nearly all day long, for some would have a
puff of wind ahead of them and some a puff behind, making it all
guesswork as to how hard it would strike.

After the second day we had the doldrums fair enough, and there we lay
with our courses clewed up and our t'gallantsails wearing out with the
continuous slatting, as the ship rolled lazily on the long, easy
equatorial sea. She was heading all around the compass, for there was
not enough air to give her steering way; so, after dinner, all hands
were allowed to turn out their outfits on the main deck for a grand
wash. When we were under one of those squall-clouds, the water would
fall so heavily that it would be ankle deep in the waist in spite of the
half-dozen five-inch scuppers spouting full streams out at both sides.
The waterfall was enough to take away the breath, standing in it, but
all hands turned out stripped to the waist. The scuppers were plugged,
and soon the waist of the ship, about forty feet wide and sixty long,
looked like a miniature lake with the after-hatch rising like a
snow-white island from the centre, and upon which a miniature surf broke
as the water swashed and swirled with each roll of the ship. Here were
hundreds of gallons of excellent water to wash in, and blankets,
jumpers, flannels, etc., were soon floating at will, while the men
seized whatever of their belongings they could lay hands on, and rubbed
piece after piece with soap. The large pieces, such as blankets, were
hauled into the shallows forward, where the ship's sheer made a gently
sloping beach. Then they were smeared with soap and laid just awash,
while the men would slide along them in their bare feet as though on
ice, squeezing out great quantities of dirty suds. Afterwards they would
be cast adrift in the deep water to rinse.

I came to the break of the poop and looked down upon the busy scene a few
feet beneath on the main deck. The water here was fully two feet deep in
the scuppers when the ship rolled to either side, and the men were almost
washed off their feet with its rush. Some of them had climbed upon the
island,--the main hatch,--where they sat and wrung the pieces of their
apparel dry. Among these washers was my old third mate, now transformed
into a somewhat shiftless sailor.

The old fellow's wardrobe was limited. It consisted of his natur