16. CHAPTER XVI.
AT DEAD OF NIGHT HE IS SENT UP TO LOOSE THE MAINSKYSAIL.
I MUST now run back a little, and tell of my first going
aloft at sea.
It happened on the second night out of port, during the
middle watch, when the sea was quite calm, and the breeze
was mild.
The order was given to loose the main-skysail, which is
the fifth and highest sail from deck. It was a very small
sail, and from the forecastle looked no bigger than a cambrie
pocket-handkerchief. But I have heard that some ships
carry still smaller sails, above the skysail; called moon-sails,
and sky-scrapers, and cloud-rakers. But I shall not believe
in them till I see them; a skysail seems high enough in all
conscience; and the idea of any thing higher than that,
seems preposterous. Besides, it looks almost like tempting
heaven, to brush the very firmament so, and almost put the
eyes of the stars out; when a flaw of wind, too, might very
soon take the conceit out of these cloud-defying cloud-rakers.
Now, when the order was passed to loose the skysail, an
old Dutch sailor came up to me, and said, “Buttons, my
boy, it's high time you be doing something; and it's boy's
business, Buttons, to loose de royals, and not old men's business,
like me. Now, d'ye see dat leetle fellow way up dare?
dare, just behind dem stars dare: well, tumble up, now,
Buttons, I zay, and looze him; way you go, Buttons.”
All the rest joining in, and seeming unanimous in the
opinion, that it was high time for me to be stirring myself,
and doing
boy's business, as they called it, I made no more
ado, but jumped into the rigging. Up I went, not daring
to look down, but keeping my eyes glued, as it were, to the
shrouds, as I ascended.
It was a long road up those stairs, and I began to pant
and breathe hard, before I was half way. But I kept at it
till I got to the Jacob's Ladder; and they may well call it
so, for it took me almost into the clouds; and at last, to my
own amazement, I found myself hanging on the skysail-yard,
holding on might and main to the mast; and curling
my feet round the rigging, as if they were another pair of
hands.
For a few moments I stood awe-stricken and mute. I
could not see far out upon the ocean, owing to the darkness
of the night; and from my lofty perch, the sea looked like
a great, black gulf, hemmed in, all round, by beetling black
cliffs. I seemed all alone; treading the midnight clouds;
and every second, expected to find myself falling—falling—
falling, as I have felt when the nightmare has been on me.
I could but just perceive the ship below me, like a long
narrow plank in the water; and it did not seem to belong
at all to the yard, over which I was hanging. A gull, or
some sort of sea-fowl, was flying round the truck over my
head, within a few yards of my face; and it almost frightened
me to hear it; it seemed so much like a spirit, at such
a lofty and solitary height.
Though there was a pretty smooth sea, and little wind;
yet, at this extreme elevation, the ship's motion was very
great; so that when the ship rolled one way, I felt something
as a fly must feel, walking the ceiling; and when it
rolled the other way, I felt as if I was hanging along a
slanting pine-tree.
But presently I heard a distant, hoarse noise from below;
and though I could not make out any thing intelligible, I
knew it was the mate hurrying me. So in a nervous, trembling
desperation, I went to casting off the gaskets, or lines
tying up the sail; and when all was ready, sung out as I
had been told, to “
hoist away!” And hoist they did, and
me too along with the yard and sail; for I had no time to
get off, they were so unexpectedly quick about it. It seemed
like magic; there I was, going up higher and higher; the
yard rising under me, as if it were alive, and no soul in
sight. Without knowing it at the time, I was in a good
deal of danger, but it was so dark that I could not see well
enough to feel afraid—at least on that account; though I
felt frightened enough in a promiscuous way. I only held
on hard, and made good the saying of old sailors, that the
last person to fall overboard from the rigging is a landsman,
because he grips the ropes so fiercely; whereas old tars are
less careful, and sometimes pay the penalty.
After this feat, I got down rapidly on deck, and received
something like a compliment from Max the Dutchman.
This man was perhaps the best natured man among the
crew; at any rate, he treated me better than the rest did;
and for that reason he deserves some mention.
Max was an old bachelor of a sailor, very precise about
his wardrobe, and prided himself greatly upon his seamanship,
and entertained some straight-laced, old-fashioned notions
about the duties of boys at sea. His hair, whiskers,
and cheeks were of a fiery red; and as he wore a red shirt,
he was altogether the most combustible looking man I ever
saw.
Nor did his appearance belie him; for his temper was
very inflammable; and at a word, he would explode in a
shower of hard words and imprecations. It was Max that
several times set on foot those conspiracies against Jackson,
which I have spoken of before; but he ended by paying him
a grumbling homage, full of resentful reservations.
Max sometimes manifested some little interest in my
welfare; and often discoursed concerning the sorry figure I
would cut in my tatters when we got to Liverpool, and the
discredit it would bring on the American Merchant Service;
for like all European seamen in American ships, Max prided
himself not a little upon his naturalization as a Yankee, and
if he could, would have been very glad to have passed himself
off for a born native.
But notwithstanding his grief at the prospect of my reflecting
discredit upon his adopted country, he never offered
to better my wardrobe, by loaning me any thing from his
own well-stored chest. Like many other well-wishers, he
contented him with sympathy. Max also betrayed some
anxiety to know whether I knew how to dance; lest, when
the ship's company went ashore, I should disgrace them by
exposing my awkwardness in some of the sailor saloons.
But I relieved his anxiety on that head.
He was a great scold, and fault-finder, and often took me
to task about my short-comings; but herein, he was not
alone; for every one had a finger, or a thumb, and sometimes
both hands, in my unfortunate pie.
