In addition
to these, they had picked up at the theatres and other places a few
songs of a little more genteel cast, which they were very proud of;
and I shall never forget hearing an old salt, who had broken his voice
by hard drinking on shore, and bellowing from the mast-head in a
hundred north-westers, with all manner of ungovernable trills and
quavers- in the high notes, breaking into a rough falsetto- and in the
low ones, growling along like the dying away of the boatswain's "all
hands ahoy!" down the hatch-way, singing, "Oh, no, we never mention
him."
"Perhaps, like me, he struggles with
Each feeling of regret;
But if he's loved as I have loved,
He never can forget!"
The last line, being the conclusion, he roared out at the top of his
voice, breaking each word up into half a dozen syllables. This was
very popular, and Jack was called upon every night to give them his
"sentimental song." No one called for it more loudly than I, for the
complete absurdity of the execution, and the sailors' perfect
satisfaction in it, were ludicrous beyond measure.
The next day, the California commenced unloading her cargo; and
her boats' crews, in coming and going, sang their boat-songs,
keeping time with their oars.
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