[□=□ | □]
[tag=□ | □]
[lemma=□ | □]
But it would have all availed me nothing , had I been " some poor body , " before this absolute , domineering tribunal . The only variety was the monotonous voice of the look-out forward - " Another island ! 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 . " Battle-songs , drinking-songs , boat-songs , love-songs , and everything else , they seemed to have a complete assortment of , and I was glad to find that " All in the Downs , " " Poor Tom Bowline , " " The Bay of Biscay , " " List , ye Landsmen ! 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 fall was stretched along the decks ; all hands laid hold ; - " Hurrah , for the last time , " said the mate ; and the anchor came to the cat-head to the tune of " Time for us to go , " with a loud chorus . Another of the men , too , who had known something of the kind attempted in another ship by a crew who were dissatisfied with their captain , and which was followed with serious consequences , was opposed to it . 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 . 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 . A small island , situated about two leagues from the anchorage , called by us " Wood Island , " and by the Spaniards " Isle de Los Angelos , " was covered with trees to the water 's edge ; and to this , two of our crew , who were Kennebec men , and could handle an axe like a plaything , were sent every morning to cut wood , with two boys to pile it up for them . At night , some of us got a boat and went on board , and found a large , roomy forecastle , ( for she was squarer forward than the Alert , ) and a crew of a dozen or fifteen men and boys , sitting around on their chests , smoking and talking , and ready to give a welcome to any of our ship 's company . 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 . He gave me a strong gripe with his hand ; and I told him , if he came to Boston again , not to fail to find me out , and let me see an old watchmate . " says another , " and we 'll get an afternoon watch below , by this scrape ; " but in this they were disappointed , for at two bells , all hands were called and set to work , getting lashings upon everything on deck ; and the captain talked of sending down the long top-gallant masts ; but , as the sea went down toward night , and the wind hauled abeam we left them standing , and set the studding-sails . Eight hours of the night , our watch was on deck , and during the whole of that time we kept a bright look-out : one man on each bow , another in the bunt of the fore yard , the third mate on the scuttle , one on each quarter , and a man always standing by the wheel . No sooner had we come-to , than a strong south-easter , which had been threatening us all day , set in , with heavy rain and a chilly atmosphere . She , too , was associated , in my mind with Boston , the wharf from which we sailed , anchorage in the stream , leave-taking , and all such matters , which were now to me like small links connecting me with another world , which I had once been in , and which , please God , I might yet see again . These brought us up again ; but the wind continuing light , the California set hers , and it was soon evident that she was walking away from us . During the first two days , we made sail for these puffs , shaking the reefs out of the topsails and boarding the tacks of the courses ; but finding that it only made work for us when the gale set in again , it was soon given up , and we lay-to under our close-reefs . 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 .