University of Virginia Library

6. CHAPTER VI.

By the time I got back to the ship, every thing was in
an uproar. The pea-jacket man was there, ordering about
a good many men in the rigging, and people were bringing
off chickens, and pigs, and beef, and vegetables from the
shore. Soon after, another man, in a striped calico shirt, a
short blue jacket and beaver hat, made his appearance, and
went to ordering about the man in the big pea-jacket; and
at last the captain came up the side, and began to order
about both of them.

These two men turned out to be the first and second
mates of the ship.

Thinking to make friends with the second mate, I took
out an old tortoise-shell snuff-box of my father's, in which I
had put a piece of Cavendish tobacco, to look sailor-like,
and offered the box to him very politely. He stared at me
a moment, and then exclaimed, “Do you think we take
snuff aboard here, youngster? no, no, no time for snuff-taking
at sea; don't let the `old man' see that snuffbox;
take my advice and pitch it overboard as quick as
you can.”

I told him it was not snuff, but tobacco; when he said,
he had plenty of tobacco of his own, and never carried any
such nonsense about him as a tobacco-box. With that, he
went off about his business, and left me feeling foolish
enough. But I had reason to be glad he had acted thus,
for if he had not, I think I should have offered my box to
the chief mate, who in that case, from what I afterward

learned of him, would have knocked me down, or done
something else equally uncivil.

As I was standing looking round me, the chief mate approached
in a great hurry about something, and seeing me
in his way, cried out, “Ashore with you, you young loafer!
There's no stealings here; sail away, I tell you, with that
shooting-jacket!”

Upon this I retreated, saying that I was going out in the
ship as a sailor.

“A sailor!” he cried, “a barber's clerk, you mean; you
going out in the ship? what, in that jacket? Hang me, I
hope the old man hasn't been shipping any more greenhorns
like you—he'll make a shipwreck of it if he has. But this
is the way nowadays; to save a few dollars in seamen's
wages, they think nothing of shipping a parcel of farmers
and clodhoppers and baby-boys. What's your name, Pillgarlic?”

“Redburn,” said I.

“A pretty handle to a man, that; scorch you to take
hold of it; havn't you got any other?”

“Wellingborough,” said I.

“Worse yet. Who had the baptizing of ye? Why
didn't they call you Jack, or Jill, or something short and
handy. But I'll baptize you over again. D'ye hear, sir,
henceforth your name is Buttons. And now do you go,
Buttons, and clean out that pig-pen in the long-boat; it has
not been cleaned out since last voyage. And bear a hand
about it, d'ye hear; there's them pigs there waiting to be
put in; come, be off about it, now.”

Was this then the beginning of my sea-career? set to
cleaning out a pig-pen, the very first thing?

But I thought it best to say nothing; I had bound myself
to obey orders, and it was too late to retreat. So I only
asked for a shovel, or spade, or something else to work with.

“We don't dig gardens here,” was the reply; “dig it out
with your teeth!”

After looking round, I found a stick and went to scraping
out the pen, which was awakward work enough, for another
boat called the “jolly-boat,” was capsized right over the
long-boat, which brought them almost close together. These
two boats were in the middle of the deck. I managed to
crawl inside of the long-boat; and after barking my shins
against the seats, and bumping my head a good many times,
I got along to the stern, where the pig-pen was.

While I was hard at work a drunken sailor peeped in,
and cried out to his comrades, “Look here, my lads, what
sort of a pig do you call this? Hallo! inside there! what
are you 'bout there? trying to stow yourself away to steal
a passage to Liverpool? Out of that! out of that, I say.”
But just then the mate came along and ordered this drunken
rascal ashore.

The pig-pen being cleaned out, I was set to work picking
up some shavings, which lay about the deck; for there had
been carpenters at work on board. The mate ordered me to
throw these shavings into the long-boat at a particular place
between two of the seats. But as I found it hard work to
push the shavings through in that place, and as it looked
wet there, I thought it would be better for the shavings as
well as myself, to thrust them where there was a larger
opening and a dry spot. While I was thus employed, the
mate observing me, exclaimed with an oath, “Didn't I tell
you to put those shavings somewhere else? Do what I tell
you, now, Buttons, or mind your eye!”

Stifling my indignation at his rudeness, which by this
time I found was my only plan, I replied that that was not
so good a place for the shavings as that which I myself had
selected, and asked him to tell me why he wanted me to put
them in the place he designated. Upon this, he flew into a
terrible rage, and without explanation reiterated his order
like a clap of thunder.

This was my first lesson in the discipline of the sea, and I
never forgot it. From that time I learned that sea-officers

never gave reasons for any thing they order to be done. It
is enough that they command it, so that the motto is, “Obey
orders, though you break owners.”

I now began to feel very faint and sick again, and longed
for the ship to be leaving the dock; for then I made no doubt
we would soon be having something to eat. But as yet, I
saw none of the sailors on board, and as for the men at work
in the rigging, I found out that they were “riggers,” that
is, men living ashore, who worked by the day in getting ships
ready for sea; and this I found out to my cost, for yielding
to the kind blandishment of one of these riggers, I had
swapped away my jack-knife with him for a much poorer
one of his own, thinking to secure a sailor friend for the
voyage.

At last I watched my chance, and while people's backs
were turned, I seized a carrot from several bunches lying
on deck, and clapping it under the skirts of my shooting-jacket,
went forward to eat it; for I had often eaten raw
carrots, which taste something like chestnuts. This carrot
refreshed me a good deal, though at the expense of a little
pain in my stomach. Hardly had I disposed of it, when I
heard the chief mate's voice crying out for “Buttons.” I
ran after him, and received an order to go aloft and “slush
down the main-top mast.”

This was all Greek to me, and after receiving the order,
I stood staring about me, wondering what it was that was
to be done. But the mate had turned on his heel, and
made no explanations. At length I followed after him, and
asked what I must do.

“Didn't I tell you to slush down the main-top mast?” he
shouted.

“You did,” said I, “but I don't know what that means.”

“Green as grass! a regular cabbage-head!” he exclaimed
to himself. A fine time I'll have with such a greenhorn
aboard. Look you, youngster. Look up to that long pole
there—d'ye see it? that piece of a tree there, you timber-head—well—take

this bucket here, and go up the rigging—
that rope-ladder there—do you understand?—and dab this
slush all over the mast, and look out for your head if one
drop falls on deck. Be off now, Buttons.”

The eventful hour had arrived; for the first time in my
life I was to ascend a ship's mast. Had I been well and
hearty, perhaps I should have felt a little shaky at the
thought; but as I was then, weak and faint, the bare
thought appalled me.

But there was no hanging back; it would look like cowardice,
and I could not bring myself to confess that I was
suffering for want of food; so rallying again, I took up the
bucket.

It was a heavy bucket, with strong iron hoops, and might
have held perhaps two gallons. But it was only half full
now of a sort of thick lobbered gravy, which I afterward
learned was boiled out of the salt beef used by the sailors.
Upon getting into the rigging, I found it was no easy job to
carry this heavy bucket up with me. The rope handle of
it was so slippery with grease, that although I twisted it
several times about my wrist, it would be still twirling
round and round, and slipping off. Spite of this, however,
I managed to mount as far as the “top,” the clumsy bucket
half the time straddling and swinging about between my
legs, and in momentary danger of capsizing. Arrived at
the “top,” I came to a dead halt, and looked up. How to
surmount that overhanging impediment completely posed me
for the time. But at last, with much straining, I contrived
to place my bucket in the “top;” and then, trusting to
Providence, swung myself up after it. The rest of the road
was comparatively easy; though whenever I incautiously
looked down toward the deck, my head spun round so from
weakness, that I was obliged to shut my eyes to recover
myself. I do not remember much more. I only recollect
my safe return to the deck.

In a short time the bustle of the ship increased; the

trunks of cabin passengers arrived, and the chests and boxes
of the steerage passengers, besides baskets of wine and fruit
for the captain.

At last we cast loose, and swinging out into the stream,
came to anchor, and hoisted the signal for sailing. Every
thing, it seemed, was on board but the crew; who in a few
hours after, came off, one by one, in Whitehall boats, their
chests in the bow, and themselves lying back in the stern
like lords; and showing very plainly the complacency they
felt in keeping the whole ship waiting for their lordships.

“Ay, ay,” muttered the chief mate, as they rolled out of
their boats and swaggered on deck, “it's your turn now, but
it will be mine before long. Yaw about while you may, my
hearties, I'll do the yawing after the anchor's up.”

Several of the sailors were very drunk, and one of them
was lifted on board insensible by his landlord, who carried
him down below and dumped him into a bunk. And two
other sailors, as soon as they made their appearance, immediately
went below to sleep off the fumes of their drink.

At last, all the crew being on board, word was passed to
go to dinner fore and aft, an order that made my heart jump
with delight, for now my long fast would be broken. But
though the sailors, surfeited with eating and drinking ashore,
did not then touch the salt beef and potatoes which the
black cook handed down into the forecastle; and though this
left the whole allowance to me; to my surprise, I found that
I could eat little or nothing; for now I only felt deadly
faint, but not hungry.