2, 10s. or L.3 per month,
as much as you can find in your hearts.
We are in the chief mate's watch (the larboard), and come on deck for
the middle watch--that is, at 12 P.M.--having had our spell below of
four hours during the first night-watch (8 P.M. to 12 P.M.) It is a
cold, dark, squally night, with frequent heavy showers of rain--in
fact, what seamen emphatically call 'dirty' weather, and our
pea-jackets and sou'-westers are necessary enough. Hardly have we got
on deck, ere the mate, who is a bit of a 'driver,' begins to order
this brace to be pulled, that yard to be squared, this sheet to be
belayed, that sail to be clewed up, and t'other set. The wind howls,
the rain beats, the ship staggers, the salt spray flies over us from
time to time. During the space of three bells, we have our hands
pretty full, and then the mate bawls: 'For'ard there! In with jib; lay
out, men!' The vessel is buried to her bight-heads every plunge she
takes, and sometimes the solid sea pours over her bowsprit as far as
the but-end of the flying jib-boom. But to hear is of course to obey;
and while some of our messmates spring to the downhaul of the jib, and
rattle it down the stay, we and another man get out along the
bowsprit, and with our feet resting on the slippery, knotted footrope
to windward, we clutch hold of the jib, which is hanging down and
lashing over to leeward.
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