Twenty Years Before the Mast; with the More Thrilling Scenes and Incidents While Circumnavigating the Globe Under the Command of the Late Admiral Char PDF Download

Author: Charles Erskine
Publisher: Theclassics.Us
ISBN: 9781230469065
Category : Seafaring life
Languages : en
Pages : 76

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Book Description
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1896 edition. Excerpt: ... urday. We ran a pole through the ox from end to end, and then placed the ends of this pole upon two forked tree-trunks which had been securely planted in the earth. A trench was dug under him in which a fire was built, and a windlass arranged with which to turn him at inter CELEBRATION OF THE FOURTH OF JULY. vals, while a committee detailed from the crew dredged him with flour and basted him every hour. At ten o'clock all hands were called to "splice the mainbrace." Not a man being sick, all indulged. After this the commodore ordered the starboard watch on the right and the larboard on the left, and then he produced a foot-ball, gave it a tremendous kick which sent it high into the air, and sang out, " Sail in, my shipmates!" We did sail in. With others I got my shins barked from my ankles to my knees, but never got so much as a kick at the ball. At eight bells, noon, the grog was rolled and all hands piped to dinner. When we repaired to the barbecue the Indians had gathered in large numbers, looking silently but wistfully at the novel sight before them. The ox proved to be as tender as a lamb. In firing the salute at midday, Daniel Whitehorn, one of our quarter-gunners, ramming home a charge, had his arm dreadfully lacerated by the unexpected discharge of the gun. This accident put a momentary stop to our hilarity. His messmates took him in charge and soothed his wounds. Jack before the mast is familiar with such scenes as this. A shipmate falling from aloft, thrown from a yard, getting washed overboard in a gale, getting tied up to the rigging or his back lacerated with the cats, getting knocked down with a hand-spike by the captain or one of his mates, -- witnessing such scenes it becomes his nature to weep with them that weep and to...