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I could not but feel a pity for him , especially when I saw him by the side of his fellow-passenger and townsman , a fat , coarse , vulgar , pretending fellow of a Yankee trader , who had made money in San Diego , and was eating out the very vitals of the Bandinis , fattening upon their extravagance , grinding them in their poverty ; having mortgages on their lands , forestalling their cattle , and already making an inroad upon their jewels , which were their last hope . He went to see him , but said that he had so little medicine , and expected to be so long on the coast , that he could do nothing for him , but that Captain Arthur would take care of him when he came down in the California , which would be in a week or more . Some changes were made ; but I was glad to find myself still in the larboard watch . One afternoon , before we were turned-to , these boys got into a violent squabble in the between-decks , when George ( the Boston boy ) said he would fight Nat , if he could have fair play . Captain Holmes endeavored to get him a passage back , but there being no vessel to sail for some time , the boy left him , and went to board at a common sailor 's boarding-house , in Ann street , where he supported himself for a few weeks by selling some of his valuables . A constant look-out was necessary ; for any of these pieces , coming with the heave of the sea , were large enough to have knocked a hole in the ship , and that would have been the end of us ; for no boat ( even if we could have got one out ) could have lived in such a sea ; and no man could have lived in a boat in such weather . The second mate was aloft , and the third mate and myself were painting the quarter-boat , which hung by the davits , so he betook himself to us ; but we looked at one another , and the officer was too busy to say a word . I sprang upon the knight-heads , and seizing hold of the fore-stay with my hands , drew myself upon it . There was not a sailor in the ship who was not rejoiced to see these sticks come down ; for , so long as the yards were aloft , on the least sign of a lull , the top-gallant sails were loosed , and then we had to furl them again in a snow-squall , and shin up and down single ropes caked with ice , and send royal yards down in the teeth of a gale coming right from the south pole . If this account of the whole matter , which we had from the boy , and which was confirmed by all the crew , be correct , I cannot understand why Captain Arthur should have refused to let him go , especially being a captain who had the name , not only with that crew , but with all whom he had ever commanded , of an unusually kind-hearted man . Our ship was nothing but a mass of hides , from the cat-harpins to the water 's edge , and from the jib-boom-end to the taffrail . The whole length of the hold , from stem to stern , was floored off level , and we began with raising a pile in the after part , hard against the bulkhead of the run , and filling it up to the beams , crowding in as many as we could by hand and pushing in with oars ; when a large " book " was made of from twenty-five to fifty hides , doubled at the backs , and put into one another , like the leaves of a book . As I was known for a hide-curer , this post was assigned to me , and I continued at it for six or eight days , tossing , in that time , from eight to ten thousand hides , until my wrists became so lame that I gave in ; and was transferred to the gang that was employed in filling the boats , where I remained for the rest of the time . 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 . Thick stockings and drawers were darned and patched ; mittens dragged from the bottom of the chest and mended ; comforters made for the neck and ears ; old flannel shirts cut up to line monkey jackets ; southwesters lined with flannel , and a pot of paint smuggled forward to give them a coat on the outside ; and everything turned to hand ; so that , although two years had left us but a scanty wardrobe , yet the economy and invention which necessity teaches a sailor , soon put each of us in pretty good trim for bad weather , even before we had seen the last of the fine . That 's the way they do it . The thought that we were actually going up for the last time , and that the next time we went round San Diego point it would be " homeward bound , " brought things so near a close , that we felt as though we were just there , though it must still be the greater part of a year before we could see Boston . " and the like , might do for common pulls , but in an emergency , when we wanted a heavy , " raise-the-dead " pull , which should start the beams of the ship , there was nothing like " Time for us to go ! These are all boiled down together in the " coppers , " and before serving it out , the mess is stirred up with a stick , so as to give each man his fair share of sweetening and tea-leaves . From us , he went to one and another of the crew , but the joke had got before him , and he found everybody busy and silent .