But all my dreams were soon put to flight by an order from the
officer to trim the yards, as the wind was getting ahead; and I
could plainly see by the looks the sailors occasionally cast to
windward, and by the dark clouds that were fast coming up, that we had
bad weather to prepare for, and had heard the captain say that he
expected to be in the Gulf Stream by twelve o'clock. 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.
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