[lemma=appreciation | □] □
[lemma=appreciation | □=□] □
[lemma=appreciation | !□] □
Upon asking where the ship was going , he was told by the shipping-master that she was bound to California . Sailors , in our merchantmen , furnish their own eating utensils , as they do many of the instruments which they use in the ship 's work , such as knives , palms and needles , marline-spikes , rubbers , etc. And considering their mode of life in other respects , the little time they would have for laying and clearing away a table with its apparatus , and the room it would take up in a forecastle , as well as the simple character of their meals , consisting generally of only one piece of meat , - it is certainly a convenient method , and , as the kid and pans are usually kept perfectly clean , a neat and simple one . He was loudly applauded , and danced frequently toward the close of the evening . We were going along at a great rate , dead before the wind , with studding-sails out on both sides , alow and aloft , on a dark night , just after midnight , and everything was as still as the grave , except the washing of the water by the vessel 's side ; for , being before the wind , with a smooth sea , the little brig , covered with canvas , was doing great business , with very little noise . Many a dispute have I heard raging high between professed " beach-combers , " as to whether the hides should be stowed " shingling , " or back-to-back , and flipper-to-flipper ; " upon which point there was an entire and bitter division of sentiment among the savans . She flung the foam from her bows ; the spray breaking aft as far as the gangway . A full-rigged brig was beating in at the same time , and we passed one another , in our tacks , sometimes one and sometimes the other , working to windward , as the wind and tide favored or opposed . As we left home about the same time , we had nothing to tell one another ; and , owing to our different situations on board , I saw but little of him on the passage home . By the loss of the sailmaker , our watch was reduced to five , of whom two were boys , who never steered but in fine weather , so that the other two and myself had to stand at the wheel four hours apiece out of every twenty-four ; and the other watch had only four helmsmen . The heavy chain cables to be hauled and pulled about the decks with bare hands ; wet hawsers , slip-ropes , and buoyropes to be hauled aboard , dripping in water , which is running up your sleeves , and freezing ; clearing hawse under the bows ; getting under weigh and coming-to , at all hours of the night and day , and a constant look-out for rocks and sands and turns of tides ; - these are some of the disagreeables of such a navigation to a common sailor . But our attention was drawn from watching this , by the falling of some drops of rain and by a perceptible increase of the darkness , which seemed suddenly to add a new shade of blackness to the night . " The last week , we had been occupied in taking in a supply of wood and water for the passage home , and bringing on board the spare spars , sails , etc. I was sent off with a party of Indians to fill the water-casks , at a spring , about three miles from the shipping , and near the town , and was absent three days , living at the town , and spending the daytime in filling the casks and transporting them on ox-carts to the landing-place , whence they were taken on board by the crew with boats . Notwithstanding all that has been said about the beauty of a ship under full sail , there are very few who have ever seen a ship , literally , under all her sail . About the middle of the first watch , a man on the forecastle sang out , in a tone which showed that there was not a moment to be lost , - " Hard up the helm ! I got my oil-cloth clothes , south-wester , and thick boots all ready , and turned into my hammock early , determined to get some sleep in advance , as the boat was to be alongside before daybreak . It seemed to be drifting slowly toward the north , so that we kept away and avoided it . As seamen improve , punishment will become less necessary ; and as the character of officers is raised , they will be less ready to inflict it ; and , still more , the infliction of it upon intelligent and respectable men will be an enormity which will not be tolerated by public opinion , and by juries , who are the pulse of the body politic . A great deal was said about our friend Don Juan Bandini , and when he did appear , which was toward the close of the evening , he certainly gave us the most graceful dancing that I had ever seen . With the wind about two points free , the yards braced in a little , and two close-reefed topsails and a reefed foresail on the ship , we made great way toward the southward and , almost every watch , when we came on deck , the air seemed to grow colder , and the sea to run higher . Mr. H ., our third mate , was ashore , and asking them particularly about the size of the sail , etc ., and learning that it was " Moku - Nui Moku , " hailed our ship , and said that the California was on the other side of the point .