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By these means , they were soon induced to give it up , for the present , though they said they would not lie where they were much longer without knowing the reason . This weather , too , seemed likely to last for some time , and we could not think of beating about the mouth of the straits for a week or two , waiting for a favorable opportunity ; so we braced up on the larboard tack , put the ship 's head due south , and struck her off for Cape Horn again . He added a few words about their duty in their present situation , and sent them forward , saying that he should take no further notice of the matter ; but , at the same time , told the carpenter to recollect whose power he was in , and that if he heard another word from him he would have cause to remember him to the day of his death . Accordingly , when the wheel was relieved at eight o'clock , the order was given to keep her due north , and all hands were turned up to square away the yards and make sail . To make our condition still worse , the wind came out due east , just after sundown , and it blew a gale dead ahead , with hail and sleet , and a thick fog , so that we could not see half the length of the ship . The Diana 's crews - a set of worthless outcasts , who had been picked up at the islands from the refuse of whale-ships , - were all as drunk as beasts , and had a set-to , on the beach , with their captain , who was in no better state than themselves . This , of course , put an end to the project , for the present ; for a thick fog and a gale blowing dead ahead are not the most favorable circumstances for the passage of difficult and dangerous straits . As we had now been about a year on the coast , it was time to think of the voyage home ; and knowing that the last two or three months of our stay would be very busy ones , and that we should never have so good an opportunity to work for ourselves as the present , we all employed our evenings in making clothes for the passage home , and more especially for Cape Horn . - A clear sky ; burning , vertical sun ; work going lazily on , and men about decks with nothing but duck trowsers , checked shirts , and straw hats ; the ship moving as lazily through the water ; the man at the helm resting against the wheel , with his hat drawn over his eyes ; the captain below , taking an afternoon nap ; the passenger leaning over the taffrail , watching a dolphin following slowly in our wake ; the sailmaker mending an old topsail on the lee side of the quarterdeck ; the carpenter working at his bench , in the waist ; the boys making sinner ; the spun-yarn winch whizzing round and round , and the men walking slowly fore and aft with their yarns . Were called up at midnight to slip for a violent north-easter , for this rascally hole of San Pedro is unsafe in every wind but a south-wester , which is seldom known to blow more than once in a half century . I went on board the first night , after supper ; found the old cook in the galley , playing upon the fife which I had given him , as a parting present ; had a hearty shake of the hand from him ; and dove down into the forecastle , where were my old shipmates , the same as ever , glad to see me ; for they had nearly given us up as lost , especially when they did not find us in Santa Barbara . The wind was now due south-west , and blowing a gale to which a vessel close hauled could have shown no more than a single close-reefed sail ; but as we were going before it , we could carry on .