Digital heart book

Such were the conditions of my new experience in life,
of which (if I had been able) I would have had all my
confreres and contemporaries to partake, forgetting,
for that while, the orthodoxies of the moment, and
devoted to a single and material purpose under the eye
of heaven.
Of the nature of our task I must continue to give some
summary idea. The forecastle was lumbered with ship's
chandlery, the hold nigh full of rice, the lazarette
crowded with the teas and silks. These must all be dug
out; and that made but a fraction of our task. The
hold was ceiled throughout; a part, where perhaps some
delicate cargo was once stored, had been lined, in
addition, with inch boards; and between every beam
there was a movable panel into the bilge. Any of
these, the bulkheads of the cabins, the very timbers of
the hull itself, might be the place of hiding. It was
therefore necessary to demolish, as we proceeded, a
great part of the ship's inner skin and fittings, and
to auscultate what remained, like a doctor sounding for
a lung disease.


Pages:
358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365 366 367 368 369 370 371 372 373 374 375 376 377 378 379 380 381 382