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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 . " said the crew , " the captain has let you off , because you are a gentleman 's son , and have got friends , and know the owners ; and taken Ben , because he is poor , and has got nobody to say a word for him ! Our forty thousand hides , thirty thousand horns , besides several barrels of otter and beaver skins , were all stowed below , and the hatches calked down . At the same time he cashed the order , which was endorsed to him , * and the next morning , the lad went aboard the brig , apparently in good spirits , having shaken hands with each of us and wished us a pleasant passage home , jingling the money in his pockets , and calling out , " Never say die , while there 's a shot in the locker . He was a Fin , but spoke English very well , and gave me long accounts of his country ; - the customs , the trade , the towns , what little he knew of the government , ( I found he was no friend of Russia ) , his voyages , his first arrival in America , his marriage and courtship ; - he had married a countrywoman of his , a dress-maker , whom he met with in Boston . You're frightened by the ducking you got in the scuppers , and ca n't take a joke ! Had he entered upon his situation of his own free will , he could have endured it ; but to have been deceived , and , in addition to that , forced into it , was intolerable . 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 . A regulation of the port forbids any ballast to be thrown overboard ; accordingly , our long-boat was lined inside with rough boards and brought alongside the gangway , but where one tub-full went into the boat , twenty went overboard . 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 . When I came into the oven he looked at me , held out his hand , and said , in a low voice , but with a delightful smile , " Aloha , Aikane ! 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 . " The news was soon known aboard , and put life into everything when we were getting under weigh . This vessel had no license , and paid no duty , besides being engaged in smuggling goods on board other vessels trading on the coast , and belonging to the same owners in Oahu . Besides S - - - and myself , there were only five in the forecastle ; who , together with four boys in the steerage , the sailmaker , carpenter , etc ., composed the whole crew . When this offer was published in the ship , and the case of poor Ben was set forth in strong colors , several , who would not have dreamed of going themselves , were busy in talking it up to others , who , they thought , might be tempted to accept it ; and , at length , one fellow , a harum-scarum lad , whom we called Harry Bluff , and who did not care what country or ship he was in , if he had clothes enough and money enough - partly from pity for Ben , and partly from the thought he should have " cruising money " for the rest of his stay , - came forward , and offered to go and " sling his hammock in the bloody hooker .