. In a few minutes eight bells were
struck, the watch called, and we went below. I now began to feel the
first discomforts of a sailor's life. The steerage in which I lived was
filled with coils of rigging, spare sails, old junk and ship stores,
which had not been stowed away. Moreover, there had been no berths
built for us to sleep in, and we were not allowed to drive nails to
hang our clothes upon. The sea, too, had risen, the vessel was rolling
heavily, and everything was pitched about in grand confusion. There
was a complete "hurrah's nest," as the sailors say, "everything on top
and nothing at hand." A large hawser had been coiled away upon my
chest; my hats, boots, mattress and blankets had all fetched away and
gone over to leeward, and were jammed and broken under the boxes and
coils of rigging. To crown all, we were allowed no light to find
anything with, and I was just beginning to feel strong symptoms of
sea-sickness, and that listlessness and inactivity which accompany it.
Giving up all attempts to collect my things together, I lay down upon
the sails, expecting every moment to hear the cry of "all hands, ahoy,"
which the approaching storm would soon make necessary. I shortly heard
the rain-drops falling on deck, thick and fast, and the watch evidently
had their hands full of work, for I could hear the loud and repeated
orders of the mate, the trampling of feet, the creaking of blocks, and
all the accompaniments of a coming storm. In a few minutes the slide
of the hatch was thrown back, which let down the noise and tumult of
the deck still louder, the loud cry of "All hands, ahoy! tumble up here
and take in sail," saluted our ears, and the hatch was quickly shut
again. When I got upon deck, a new scene and a new experience were
before me. The little brig was close hauled upon the wind, and lying
over, as it then seemed to me, nearly upon her beam ends. The heavy
head sea was beating against her bows with the noise and force almost
of a sledge-hammer, and flying over the deck, drenching us completely
through. The topsail halyards had been let go, and the great sails
filling out and backing against the masts with a noise like thunder.
The wind was whistling through the rigging, loose ropes flying about;
loud and, to me, unintelligible orders constantly given and rapidly
executed, and the sailors "singing out" at the ropes in their hoarse
and peculiar strains. In addition to all this, I had not got my