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We continued at work in this manner until the lower hold was filled to within four feet of the beams , when all hands were called aboard to commence steeving . On deck , all was as dark as a pocket , and either a dead calm , with the rain pouring steadily down , or , more generally , a violent gale dead ahead , with rain pelting horizontally , and occasional variations of hail and sleet ; - decks afloat with water swashing from side to side , and constantly wet feet ; for boots could not be wrung out like drawers , and no composition could stand the constant soaking . Each morning we went ashore , and beat and brought off as many hides as we could steeve in the course of the day , and , after breakfast , went down into the hold , where we remained at work until night . " The news was soon known aboard , and put life into everything when we were getting under weigh . The Brandywine frigate , also , in her passage round , had sixty days off the Cape , and lost several boats by the heavy sea . When beaten , they were taken from this pole by two more , and placed upon a platform of boards ; and ten or a dozen men , with their trowsers rolled up , were constantly going , back and forth , from the platform to the boat , which was kept off where she would just float , with the hides upon their heads . Over thirty thousand hides had been already collected , cured , and stowed away in the house , which , together with what we should collect , and the Pilgrim would bring down from San Francisco , would make out her cargo . The California had got under weigh at the same moment ; and we sailed down the narrow bay abreast and were just off the mouth , and finding ourselves gradually shooting ahead of her , were on the point of giving her three parting cheers , when , suddenly , we found ourselves stopped short , and the California ranging fast ahead of us . 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 . Mr. Brown had been entrusted with the general care of the medicine-chest , and although a driving fellow , and a taught hand in a watch , he had good feelings , and was always inclined to be kind to the sick . There is a story current among seamen , that a beef-dealer was convicted , at Boston , of having sold old horse for ship 's stores , instead of beef , and had been sentenced to be confined in jail , until he should eat the whole of it ; and that he is now lying in Boston jail . " For this , of course , I was much obliged to him , and in truth it was just what I expected . Fortunately a sailor , not being a free agent in work aboard ship , is not accountable ; yet the fact of being constantly employed , without thought , in such things , begets an indifference to the rights of others . She was off the point at the same time with us , but did not get in to the anchoring-ground until an hour or two after us . We had many doubts of the reception he would meet with ; but he seemed to think himself company for any one . I went aboard and turned into my hammock , but I could not sleep . She seemed desirous of a trial of speed , and our captain accepted the challenge , although we were loaded down to the bolts of our chain plates , as deep as a sand-barge , and bound so taught with our cargo that we were no more fit for a race than a man in fetters ; - while our antagonist was in her best trim . " Nat tried to close with him , knowing his advantage , but the mate stopped that , saying there should be fair play , and no fingering . Jokes were made upon those who showed any interest in the expected news , and everything near and dear was made common stock for rude jokes and unfeeling coarseness , to which no exception could be taken by any one . Day after day , Captain Faucon went up to the hill to look out for us , and at last , gave us up , thinking we must have gone down in the gale which we experienced off Point Conception , and which had blown with great fury over the whole coast , driving ashore several vessels in the snuggest ports . Relieved as I was to see her well off , ( and I felt like one who had just sprung from an iron trap which was closing upon him ) I had yet a feeling of regret at taking the last look at the old craft in which I had spent a year , and the first year , of my sailor 's life - which had been my first home in the new world into which I had entered - and with which I had associated so many things , - my first leaving home , my first crossing the equator , Cape Horn , Juan Fernandez , death at sea , and other things , serious and common .