- One of the boys furls the mizen royal.- Cook thinks there
is going to be "nasty work," and has supper ready early.- Mate gives
orders to get supper by the watch, instead of all hands, as usual.-
While eating supper, hear the watch on deck taking in the royals.-
Coming on deck, find it is blowing harder, and an ugly head sea is
running.- Instead of having all hands on the forecastle in the dog
watch, smoking, singing, and telling yarns, one watch goes below and
turns-in, saying that it's going to be an ugly night, and two hours'
sleep is not to be lost. Clouds look black and wild; wind rising,
and ship working hard against a heavy sea, which breaks over the
forecastle, and washes aft through the scuppers. Still, no more sail
is taken in, for the captain is a driver, and, like all drivers,
very partial to his top-gallant sails. A top-gallant sail, too,
makes the difference between a breeze and a gale. When a top-gallant
sail is on a ship, it is only a breeze, though I have seen ours set
over a reefed topsail, when half the bowsprit was under water, and
it was up to a man's knees in the scuppers.
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