The tightest ships, in long voyage, from the constant
strain which is upon the bowsprit, will leak, more or less, round
the heel of the bowsprit, and the bitts, which come down into the
forecastle; but, in addition to this, we this, we had an unaccountable
leak on the starboard bow, near the cat-head, which drove us from
the forward berths on that side, and, indeed, when she was on the
starboard tack, from all the forward berths. One of the after
berths, too, leaked in very bad weather; so that in a ship which was
in other respects as tight as a bottle, and brought her cargo to
Boston perfectly dry, we had, after every effort made to prevent it,
in the way of caulking and leading, a forecastle with only three dry
berths for seven of us. However, as there is never but one watch below
at a time, by 'turning in and out,' we did pretty well. And there
being, in our watch, but three of us who lived forward, we generally
had a dry berth apiece in bad weather.*
*On removing the cat-head, after the ship arrived at Boston, it was
found that there were two holes under it which had been bored for
the purpose of driving treenails, and which, accidentally, had not
been plugged up when the cat-head was placed over them.
Pages:
481
482
483
484
485
486
487
488
489
490
491
492
493
494
495
496
497
498
499
500
501
502
503
504
505