The topsail halyards had been let go, and the
great sails were filling out topsoil and backing against the masts
with a noise like thunder. The wind was whistling through the rigging,
loose ropes flying about; loud and, to me, unintelligible orders
constantly given and rapidly executed, and the sailors "singing out"
at the ropes in their hoarse and peculiar strains. In addition to
all this, I this, I had not got my "sea legs on," was dreadfully sick,
with hardly strength enough to hold on to anything, and it was
"pitch dark." This was my state when I was ordered aloft, for the
first time, to reef topsails.
How I got along, I cannot now remember. I "laid out" on the yards
and held on with all my strength. I could not have been of much
service, for I remember having been sick several times before I left
the topsail yard. Soon all was snug aloft, and we were again allowed
to go below. This I did not consider much of a favor, for the
confusion of everything below, and that inexpressible sickening smell,
caused by the shaking up of the bilge-water in the hold, made the
steerage but an indifferent refuge from the cold, wet decks.
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