A Narrative of the Mutiny, on Board the Ship Globe, of Nantucket, in the Pacific Ocean, Jan. 1824: And the journal of a residence of two years on the Mulgrave; Islands; with observations on the manners and customs of; the inhabitantsLay, William
History
A Narrative of the Mutiny, on Board the Ship Globe, of Nantucket, in the Pacific Ocean, Jan. 1824: And the journal of a residence of two years on the Mulgrave; Islands; with observations on the manners and customs of; the inhabitants
Lay, William
Globe Mutiny, 1824; Mili Atoll (Marshall Islands)
On the 15th day of December, we sailed from Edgarton, on a whaling
voyage, to the Pacific Ocean, but in working out, having carried away
the cross-jack-yard, we returned to port, and after having refitted
and sent aloft another, we sailed again on the 19th, and on the same
day anchored in Holmes' Hole. On the following day a favourable
opportunity offering to proceed to sea, we got under way, and after
having cleared the land, discharged the pilot, made sail, and
performed the necessary duties of stowing the anchors, unbending and
coiling away the cables, &c.--On the 1st of January 1823, we
experienced a heavy gale from N. W. which was but the first in the
catalogue of difficulties we were fated to encounter.--As this was our
first trial of a seaman's life, the scene presented to our view, "mid
the howling storm," was one of terrific grandeur, as well as of real
danger. But as the ship scudded well, and the wind was fair, she was
kept before it, under a close reefed main-top-sail and fore-sail,
although during the gale, which lasted forty-eight hours, the sea
frequently threatened to board us, which was prevented by the skillful
management of the helm. On the 9th of January we made the Cape Verd
Islands, bearing S. W. twenty-five miles distant, and on the 17th,
crossed the Equator. On the 29th of the same month we saw sperm
whales, lowered our boats, and succeeded in taking one; the blubber of
which, when boiled out, yielded us seventy-five barrels of oil.
Pursuing our voyage, on the twenty-third of February we passed the
Falkland Islands, and about the 5th of March, doubled the great
promontory of South America, Cape Horn, and stood to the Northward.
We saw whales once only before we reached the Sandwich Islands, which
we made on the first of May early in the morning. When drawing in with
the Island of Hawaii about four in the afternoon, the man at the mast
head gave notice that he saw a shoal of black fish on the lee bow;
which we soon found to be canoes on their way to meet us. It falling
calm at this time prevented their getting along side until night fall,
which they did, at a distance of more than three leagues from the
land. We received from them a very welcome supply of potatoes, sugar
cane, yams, cocoanuts, bananas, fish, &c. for which we gave them in
return, pieces of iron hoop, nails, and similar articles. We stood off
and on during the next day, and after obtaining a sufficient supply of
vegetables and fruit, we shaped our course for Oahu, at which place we
arrived on the following day, and after lying there twenty hours,
sailed for the coast of Japan, in company with the whaling ships
Palladium of Boston, and Pocahontas of Falmouth; from which ships we
parted company when two days out.--After cruising in the Japan seas
several months, and obtaining five hundred and fifty barrels of oil,
we again shaped our course for the Sandwich Islands, to obtain a
supply of vegetables, &c.
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