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Had it been fine weather , or in port , I should have gone below and lain by until my face got well ; but in such weather as this , and short-handed as we were , it was not for me to desert my post ; so I kept on deck , and stood my watch and did my duty as well as I could . Another singular custom I was for some time at a loss about . With this I went to the mate , and told him the case . It was an interesting sight , too , to see our noble ship , dismantled of all her top-hamper of long tapering masts and yards , and boom pointed with spear-head , which ornamented her in port ; and all that canvas , which a few days before had covered her like a cloud , from the truck to the water 's edge , spreading far out beyond her hull on either side , now gone ; and she , stripped , like a wrestler for the fight . Then , feeling of all our clothes , we picked out those which were the least wet , and put them on , so as to be ready for a call , and turned-in , covered ourselves up with blankets , and slept until three knocks on the scuttle and the dismal sound of " All starbowlines ahoy ! This pacified them a little , but Jack had got a notion that a poor lad was to be imposed upon , and did not distinguish very clearly ; and though I knew that I was in no fault , and , in fact , had barely escaped the grossest injustice , yet I felt that my berth was getting to be a disagreeable one . This was the only time I had been ill since I left Boston , and it was the worst time it could have happened . The ship wore round fairly , the yards were steadied , and we stood off on the other tack , leaving behind us , directly under our larboard quarter , a large ice island , peering out of the mist , and reaching high above our tops , while astern ; and on either side of the island , large tracts of field-ice were dimly seen , heaving and rolling in the sea . This old covey knows the ropes . " was what some said , and every one felt . Some changes were made ; but I was glad to find myself still in the larboard watch . Some said that the captain was frightened , - completely cowed , by the dangers and difficulties that surrounded us , and was afraid to make sail ; while others said that in his anxiety and suspense he had made a free use of brandy and opium , and was unfit for his duty . Nearly two hundred hours ( as we had calculated it ) had we walked the ship 's deck together , at anchor watch , when all hands were below , and talked over and over every subject which came within the ken of either of us . He turned fiercely upon me , and tried to look me down , and face me out of my statement ; but finding that that would n't do , and that I was entering upon my defence in such a way as would show to the other two that he was in the wrong , - he changed his ground , and pointed to the shipping papers of the Pilgrim , from which my name had never been erased , and said that there was my name , - that I belonged to her , - that he had an absolute discretionary power ; - and , in short , that I must be on board the Pilgrim by the next morning with my chest and hammock , or have some one ready to go in my place , and that he would not hear another word from me . It was a sad sight for her crew to see us getting ready to go off the coast , while they , who had been longer on the coast than the Alert , were condemned to another year 's hard service . The mission of San Francisco near the anchorage , has no trade at all , but those of San Jose , Santa Clara , and others , situated on large creeks or rivers which run into the bay , and distant between fifteen and forty miles from the anchorage , do a greater business in hides than any in California . Yet it was a dreadful night for those on deck . At sun-down , another salute of the same number of guns was fired , and all the flags run down . Keeping some sticks near , to dry , and covering the whole over with a roof of boards , we kept up a small fire , by which we cooked our muscles , and eat them , rather for an occupation than from hunger . 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 . Every one away from home thinks that some great thing must have happened , while to those at home there seems to be a continued monotony and lack of incident . Finding the rain running down upon us , and our jackets getting wet through , and the rough , knotty-logs , rather indifferent couches , we turned out ; and taking an iron pan which we brought with us , we wiped it out dry , put some stones around it , cut the wet bark from some sticks , and striking a light , made a small fire in the pan . " and all those classical songs of the sea , still held their places .